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European dot-coms are booming. But trying to make a pound, mark or franc selling office supplies to them is a daunting task. Europe's exorbitant commercial rents and labor costs, coupled with its famously fragmented marketplace, make profiting by selling staplers, thumbtacks and Krazy Glue nearly impossible. A group of Americans, however, are trying to do just that-on the Internet.
London-based Euroffice Ltd., which launched in November to sell office supplies to small U.K. businesses over the Web, plans a major expansion. Over the next several months, it expects to begin operations in Germany and France. It will also begin offering services such as insurance and credit checks.
Euroffice's execs are gambling that by saving on its labor and rent costs-it has only eight full-time employees and doesn't lease store space-the start-up will be profitable in short order. "We are 30% to 80% cheaper than stores, and 10% to 15% cheaper than catalogs," said George Karibian, Euroffice cofounder and former Honeywell...