The Office Place: 1988 revenues: $20.9 million; employees: 190; rank: 37.

• Author: Levi, Steve
• Position: The New Forty-Niners - Company profile

IT'S NOT UNCOMMON FOR AN Alaskan enterprise to be snatched up by an Outside firm, which uses the business as a stepping stone to the 49th state. But it is out of the ordinary for said business to ricochet back to Alaskan ownership. A group of Anchorage investors acquired select assets, redesigned the operating and management structure, revamped marketing plans and began afresh to build an Anchorage based office supply business.

The Office Place, only a year old under its new management, employs 190 people statewide. One hundred percent Alaskan owned, the enterprise reports 1988 revenues were $21 million, placing The Office Place not only among the New Forty-Niners but also in the top 4 percent of the office supply industry nationwide.

The firm has 3,500 active accounts and an annual payroll of more than $6 million. Last year, it sold 120 million sheets of copy paper - a stack of paper twice as high as Mount McKinley.

Five years ago, Yukon Office Supply, an Alaskan corporation formed in 1951 that had grown to include stores in Washington and Hawaii, was bought by a national chain. The large conglomerate, known as NBI-believed to stand for "nothing but initials" acquired numerous office supply stores in the western United States.

The firm operated stores in Colorado, California, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska under the name NBI's The Office Place. Competing in a business that's dominated by local and regional company's, NBI of Boulder, Colo., found it could not turn a profit with its Alaska subsidiary. In June of 1988, NBI sold a substantial portion of its Alaska inventories for $6.5 million to a group of 16 Alaskans, several of whom were managers in the business. Then, the Alaskans did what NBI could not: They turned a profit. Despite the sluggish economy during its first year of operation, The Office Place generated a five percent increase in sales.

NBI's Southeast outlets were sold separately. The stores in Ketchikan, Juneau and Sitka have resumed using the name Yukon Office Supply, although ownership is different from the former firm. Another operation in Kodiak also was sold separately.

Today, The Office Place has five outlets: two in Anchorage and one each in Fairbanks, Kenai and Soldotna. The company, which uses the slogan "Your Business Express," markets business furniture, office supplies and business machinery. Its largest facility, in Anchorage, is more than 100,000 square feet, half of which is warehouse.

The Office Place operates...