A Course to the Top

If the trend continues, Vander Zanden says, School Specialty will be well positioned to serve the market’s needs. The company is developing new products for this younger market segment by leveraging the knowledge of products it already has in its offerings.

But the pre-K market isn’t the only niche in which School Specialty has focused its eye toward growth. Its proprietary product development carries into other areas. “We’re developing new products, for example, in the art and physical-education markets,” Vander Zanden says. “These are two areas of education that have seen a lot of change over the past 20 or so years. [Teachers] are using some new teaching methods and are in need of new tools to succeed.”