Our History

At Monk Office you'll find more than 100 people who 'speak office' in the most friendly, helpful, expert way. We're dedicated. We're hard-working. We're here day after day, year after year, to make sure that you get the products you need, at the prices you want. We've been serving you in Victoria and on Vancouver Island for more than 50 years. And we're very proud of it.

In 1951 we opened the doors to our first store, Murphy Stationery, in the heart of downtown Victoria. This premiere store, located at the corner of Fort and Broad Streets, operated under the guidance of Charlie Monk, who purchased the store in 1956 and changed the name to Monk Office Supply. Following years of operating successfully, and moving the store to a higher traffic location on Government Street, Charlie sold to Ron McKenzie.

In 1978, we opened our flagship retail store at the corner of Fort and Blanshard. And as the city and island grew, we expanded to better serve community needs:

• 1981 -- we built a 22,000 sq.ft. building at 3335 Oak Street in Victoria. Originally created to house our distribution centre, today our Oak Street store is a retail outlet with postal services, full production quick copy centre and the largest furniture idea showroom in the city
• 1985 -- we opened our third retail store on View Street in Victoria
• 1988 -- our fourth store opens at University Heights Shopping Centre in Victoria
• 1992 -- James McKenzie, son of Ron McKenzie, and Ross Hill become new owners
• 1994 -- we move our distribution centre to 800 Viewfield Road, now home to stationery distribution, furniture warehouse and head office
• 1995 -- we expand on Vancouver Island through purchasing Lindsays Stationery stores
• 2002 -- we cut the ribbon to open our Broadmead Village store in Victoria
• 2005 -- we proudly open our new Furniture Idea Showroom, second floor of our Oak Street Store and expand our distribution centre another 4,000 square feet to support our expanded furniture offering.

Today, we have nine retail locations, five in Victoria, one in Sidney, Courtenay, Campbell River and Port Hardy, a Furniture Idea Showroom in Victoria plus an office furniture division and commercial stationery sales. You can shop Monk Office online 24/7/365. And we're part of the BASICS Office Products buying group, the largest buying group in Canada. This gives us major purchasing power to ensure that you always get the best value.