ATLANTA - Staples Inc., the world’s largest retailer of office supplies, said second-quarter earnings fell 38 percent as companies bought fewer desks and chairs and profit margin narrowed.
Net income dropped to $92.4 million, or 13 cents a share, from $150.2 million, or 21 cents, a year earlier, Framingham, Mass.-based Staples said yesterday.
Sales rose 9 percent to $5.53 billion in the 13 weeks ended Aug. 1, helped by the 2008 acquisition of Corporate Express NV.
Staples is adding more-profitable technical services, such as computer repair.
Gross margin, the fraction of sales remaining after subtracting the cost of goods sold, shrank to 25.7 percent, from 26.6 percent.
“The only number that’s going to give anyone any concern is the gross margin,’’ said Scott Tilghman, an analyst at Hudson Square Research Inc.
