Sam Duncan Quotations

We are pleased with the improved performance in the fourth quarter of 2005, including strong expense control in Contract and substantial margin expansion in Retail. With the fourth quarter Contract and Retail results, we continue to believe that OfficeMax is positioned to achieve the 2006 and intermediate- term goals that we outlined in our turnaround plan last month.

Our turnaround plan demonstrates our full focus and commitment to improving sales and profitability to enhance value for our shareholders, and under this plan, we are targeting higher performance levels across the entire company.

We are very grateful to Carolyn for the significant contributions that she has made to our board over the past five years. The board and our company have benefited from Carolyn's expertise and we wish her well.

The store consolidation plan does not change our optimistic outlook with regard to new store development, and we continue to expect that we will open up to 70 new OfficeMax stores in 2006, using primarily our new Advantage store prototype format, to strengthen our position in key areas of the country.