kinkos

FedEx Kinko's is a chain of stores that provide printing, copying, and binding services. Many FedEx Kinko stores also provide video conferencing facilities. The primary clientele consists of small business and home office clients. There are more than 1200 centres in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.

The company was founded in 1970 by Paul Orfalea, whose nickname was "Kinko" because of his curly hair. The original copy shop was founded in the college community of Isla Vista next to the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He left the company in 2000, following a dispute with the investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, to which he had sold a large stake in the company a few years earlier.

Kinko's established its corporate headquarters in Ventura, California, but in 2002, the company relocated to Galleria Tower in Dallas, Texas.

In February 2004 Kinko's was bought by FedEx for $2.4 billion and is now known as FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Centers. Currently, Kenneth A. May is the President and Chief Executive Officer, having replaced Gary Kusin as of February 1, 2006.

Locations of FedEx Kinko's include Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Mexico, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

FedEx Kinko's primary competitors include the UPS Store, AlphaGraphics, Allegra, and Sir Speedy.

Trivia

• When Kinko's attempted to expand to Tucson, Arizona, they discovered that there already was an independent copy shop there named Kinko's, which had been founded in the early 1970's under an earlier agreement to allow use of the Kinko's name. Rodger Ford, founder of AlphaGraphics, purchased the Kinko's franchise for the Tucson area and used the name "Zudo's" on his stores in order to isolate the Kinko's brand from AlphaGraphics's geographic stronghold. This situation continued until the 1990's when Ford's franchise expired and Kinko's refused to extend the franchise under the previous terms.
• In 2006 Persuasive Games created a video game parody of a Fedex Kinkos store. "Disaffected! puts the player in the role of employees forced to service customers under the particular incompetences common to a Kinko’s store."
• In February 2006, Strom Carlson discovered a security flaw in Kinko's ExpressPay stored-value smart card system. This flaw allows an attacker to adjust the value on an ExpressPay card which can then be used for xeroxes or redeemed for cash. As of September 2006, this has not been fixed.

External links

• FedEx Kinko's, official site
• Forbes: Kinko's cuts ties to founder