Corporate Express Named General Motors' Supplier of the Year

6 May 1999
Corporate Express Named General Motors' Supplier of the Year
  Corporate Express is the First Office Products Supplier to Win Prestigious
                                Award from GM

    BROOMFIELD, Colo., May 6 -- Corporate Express, Inc.
has been named a General Motors Supplier of the Year for 1998.
The coveted award recognizes General Motors' top suppliers worldwide that have
exceeded performance standards in the areas of quality, service, technology
and price.  It is the first time since the awards' inception 20 years ago that
General Motors has awarded an office products supplier its top honor.
    "The GM Supplier of the Year award is one of the most prestigious awards
in the automotive industry, and we are very proud to receive it.  It has even
more significance to Corporate Express because we are the first office
products supplier to win this award," said Robert King, President and CEO of
Corporate Express.  "Our relationship and experience with GM is an exemplary
model of the value and cost savings that companies can find by consolidating
suppliers of non-production goods and services."
    "GM's Suppliers of the Year represent the 'best of the best,'" said
Harold R. Kutner, Vice President and Group Executive, GM Worldwide Purchasing
and North American Production Control & Logistics.  "Of GM's 30,000 suppliers,
Corporate Express is one of only 184 that have achieved Supplier of the Year
distinction for 1998, an honor accorded to those suppliers who have achieved
world-class levels of quality, service, technology and price in support of
General Motors," he said.
    Teams of purchasing, quality, engineering and manufacturing experts from
GM operations around the world selected the companies recognized.  These teams
reviewed supplier performance in quality, service and price during the 1998
calendar year.
    The GM Supplier of the Year awards are a long-standing tradition at GM.
The Awards began in Germany over twenty years ago and were expanded to all of
GM Europe in 1989.  The Supplier of the Year awards became an international
award in 1992.  Awards are presented in five global categories, Chemical,
Electrical, Logistics, Machinery & Equipment/Indirect and Metallic.
    "General Motors is a company that values innovative procurement solutions
and Corporate Express specializes in designing and delivering those
solutions," said King.  "This award is attributable to the outstanding service
provided by our employees in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Novi, Michigan, Troy,
Michigan, Nashville, Tennessee, Whippany, New Jersey and Corporate Express
Australia, and I'd like to recognize and congratulate them for this
achievement."
    Corporate Express has a history of providing cost savings and innovative
procurement solutions for General Motors and Saturn Corporation, a division of
GM based in Spring Hill, Tenn.  Since 1996, Corporate Express has been a
supplier of traditional office products and other business commodities for
General Motors.  Corporate Express was awarded the "#1 Integrator in
Cost Savings Award" from GM Small Car Group in Lansing, Mich. for its
outstanding performance in cost savings in 1997 and 1998.  Corporate Express
is one of only 18 qualified Integrators to roll out the Integrated Process to
GM worldwide.
    Corporate Express has also been an office products supplier for Saturn
Corporation for the past 10 years.  In 1997, Corporate Express won the Quality
Recognition Award and the Outstanding Achievement Award from Saturn
Corporation.  Corporate Express also won the Saturn Quality Award in 1996.
    General Motors Worldwide Purchasing is a global organization operating in
the four main regions of the world: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and
North American.  It is responsible for annual purchases of about $86 billion
in goods and services in support of the approximately 8.6 million vehicles GM
produces in 30 countries around the world each year.
    Corporate Express is a leading supplier of essential office and computer
products and services to corporations that value innovative procurement
solutions.  In its continuing operations, Corporate Express currently operates
in nearly 300 locations, including 89 distribution centers, and employs
approximately 15,000 people in the United States, Australia, Canada, France,
Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, and the
Netherlands.