AFRICA Territory Review West Africa East Africa Southern

AFRICA Territory Review

West Africa East Africa Southern Africa

Demographics • Number of countries (excl. North Africa) Ø East Africa – 12 Ø Southern Africa – 12 Ø West Africa - 22 Number of International Schools* Ø Ø East Africa - 192 West Africa - 127 Southern Africa – 63 Total (German/French & English) = 282 Ø *Source-iscresearch

Channels Direct School Sales West Africa Distributor Trade Education Direct Sales Book Fair Book Clubs

West Africa Distributor Ø Trade • Nu Metro Ø Education – Ministry/School Ø Direct Sales • Florida Books – Websters • Happy Minds – Klutz (Ghana) Ø Book Fair Ø Direct School Sales • Catalogue (Trade /Education/Library) Ø Book Clubs

Channels Southern & East Africa Distributor Direct to School Sales Book Clubs Trade Education Direct Sales Book Fair Packager

Southern and East Africa Distributor Ø Trade • Book Promotions • Hidden Treasure Ø Education – Ministry/School • Horizon Books • Savani Ø Packager • READ Ø Direct Sales • Direct mail – Jacklin Enterprise • Door-to-Door – Missing Link Ø Book Fair • Traveling Bookshop/Diskonto/Booktime

Trends • Focus on Early Childhood • School enrolment growth – state schools • International School decline in some countries – Embassy closures • Library building programs • Direct to school distribution • Disposable income through schools through private parents funding

SWOT Strengths • Brand • US$ = competitive price • Broad range of supplemental product – Teacher resources • Multi-channeled product lines • Variety of content to match to local curricula

SWOT • • • Weaknesses Export procedures into Africa Lack of representation in East Africa Spelling – UK vs US Quality of Paperbacks Customer Service

SWOT Opportunities • Opening South African education market to all distributors • Growing middle class disposable income • Exclusive SLP distribution with Missing Link • Local representation – Joyce (West Africa) • Botswana expansion • Supplementary readers submission – Ghana • AISA Seminar on Leveled Reading

SWOT • • • Threats Lack of movie tie-in product Political instability Currency fluctuations Ordering process time Lack of SLP inventory Move to local publishing with MOE (Botswana, SA)

Last years accomplishments • Door-to-Door sales – Missing Link ($92 k $300 k) • Party plan (Klutz & Teachers Friend) – Happy Minds • Direct mail – Scholastic @Home (Dr Seuss) – Jacklin Enterprise ($10 k-$70 k) • Cape Town Book Fair – now annual event

Lessons learned • Ministry assumption/dependence, Botswana • Movie tie-in product – only one last FY compared with 4 in previous FY • Large Chain of Multi media stores failure to buy for whole year – C. N. A. , South Africa ($200 K previous FY) • (Florida Books, Nigeria) Exclusivity deals on product (Websters) • Ministry submissions (orders in procurement– SA & Ghana-slow process)

Focus for FY 06/07 • Increase trade sales – new structures • Prioritize the 80 -20 factor • Grow FW/CP, Grolier & Weston Woods product direct to home and school sales • Multiple Education show days • Intense Field training of distributor manpower • Develop leveled reading presentation model for multiple school. conference seminars • Securing as many new book club accounts as possible August to October especially • Establish Scholastic Ambassador schools

How can others learn • Read the market, don’t be dictated to by existing situation • Prioritize 80 -20 factor • Know your product – listen to your channel main players (READ-science, Missing Link -full range • Having a bad month ok but never a bad quarter