A Course to the Top

Company Chronology
1959 Founded as Valley School Supply, Appleton, WI.
1987 Acquired Michigan School Supply.
1991 Acquired Western School Supply and the institutional sales division of Learning World.
1992 Acquired JS Latta.
1994 Acquired Chaselle and New England School Supply.
1995 Acquired School Specialty Supply and changed company name to School Specialty Inc.
1996 Sold to U.S. Office Products. Also acquired: Metropolitan School Supply, Bardeen’s, Southern School Supply, Thompson Book & School Supply, Bender & Sons, and National School &Office Products.
1997 Acquired Allied School & Office Products, Childcraft, California School Furnishings, Sax Arts & Crafts, Don Gresswell Ltd., Northern School Supply, and American Academic Supply.
1998 Spun off from U.S. Office Products. Also acquired: Hammond & Stephens, Teacher DeskTop, and Beckley-Cardy Group.
1999 Acquired Sportime, SmartStuff Development Corp., Holsinger, Audio Graphic Systems, and Scranton Quality Computers.
2000 Acquired the classroom furniture business of Irwin Seating Co.
2001 Acquired Global Video, J.L. Hammett Co.’s K-12 wholesale division. Sold Don Gresswell (UK) and SmartStuff Software.
2002 Acquired Envision, Premier Science Curriculum Product and Premier School Agendas.
2003 Acquired Bradburn School Supply, ABC School Supply and J.L. Hammett’s non-retail business. Also, Sportime International subsidiary acquired SPARK Products and Texas Athletic Supply, and Global Video LLC subsidiary bought Sunburst Visual Media.
2004 Acquired Select Agendas.