School Specialty Overview

Michael Mueller

Director of International Alliance Development ,School Specialty,USA

School Specialty is an Education Company serving the preK-12 market in the U.S. and Canada with supplemental learning products, school furniture, children’s publishing, and specialized buying services.

Working in collaboration with educators, School Specialty reaches beyond the scope of textbooks to further enhance the teaching and learning experience.

■SCHOOL SPECIALTY PHASES
Where We’ve Been…Where We’re Going

Stage 1    Foundation   1959 – 1991

Founded company

Regional, general school supply company

Revenues increased to $20MM

Stage 2    Acquisitions   1991 – 2004

Completed nearly 50 acquisitions

Grown into the largest general and specialty school supply company in the nation

Revenues increased from $20MM to $900MM

Stage 3   Market Leadership   Today-

Evolve into a premier “education company”

Build the corporate brand, and structure the relationship between all brands in the family

Realize the full power of our family of brands

Drive aggressive growth

Seize the definitive leadership position

Strong Financial Performance

#1 in Educational Resources Market

uLeading market position

·15% market share of highly fragmented $7.2 billion U.S. industry

·Revenues 7x larger than closest competitor

·Only US and Canada distribution platform

·Leading established brands

uLargest product portfolio

·Over 85,000 education products

·Over 35% proprietary products

·Over 10,000 children’s titles and other proprietary publications

uUnparalleled customer reach via multi-tier marketing approach

·130,000 preK-12 schools and 3.9 million teachers in U.S. and Canada

·Over 550-person sales force

·Over 48 million catalogs mailed annually

·Experience in dealing with large educational buying groups

·E-Commerce solutions

Unique Business Model
Reaches All Decision-Makers

Proprietary Products-35% Revenue

Our focus is designing, developing and marketing innovative educational products and services that help teachers engage and inspire students of all ages and abilities.

•Imports

–600 Containers in FY2005

–Goal next 18 months = 10% of revenues

Private Label - Imports

What Hasn’t Changed

•Expenditure growth continues to outpace inflation

•Criticism of learning outcomes despite growth in expenditures

Attractive Industry Growth Trends

EDUCATION RESOURCES MARKET

Attractive Industry Growth Trends

Enrollment is not correlated to economic conditions

uIncreasing expenditures per student and total enrollment

uFavorable geopolitical environment

uLast recession in 1992-1993 growth rates of 1%

Thank you!