A Course to the Top

“In the future, we’ll be doing more to merchandise some products across the brands,” Vander Zanden continues. It’s about image- and awareness-building, he says.

Cross-merchandising already is happening online. “We have Web sites for all the brands, and they do cross over,” he notes.

School Specialty also is expanding its market vertically, by reaching beyond grades K-12. “The day care and preschool market is a big growth area for us,” says Vander Zanden. “Through Childcraft and ABC, we’ve tapped into this increasingly important segment of children’s education. And it’s been very good for us so far.”