Staples, the US office supplies company, said on Tuesday it intended to press ahead with plans to buy its Dutch rival Corporate Express at a price of €7.25 ($11.36) a share, a level the Dutch company rejected as too low.

Staples first raised the prospect of its all-cash offer in February and urged Peter Ventress, chief executive of Corporate Express, to enter takeover talks. The proposed deal, which puts Corporate Exp­ress’s enterprise value at €2.5bn, was firmly rejected.