A Chat with April’s Profile, A.G. Russell and Goldie Russell, president and CEO, A.G. Russell Knives

Goldie: That leads to one of the biggest challenges over the years. It’s not so much a problem anymore, but for most of the history of the company, trying to educate the bankers, the accountants, the lawyers about mail order was tough. Because there’s no other mail order companies around here, they didn’t understand it. There’s one other company here, but they produce jams and jellies. But that’s the only one, and they’ve been low key. That’s been a challenge over the years. We’ve been relatively successful recently, and as you become more successful, these folks become more comfortable dealing with you. And because the economy and the area has grown so much with this influx of Walmart vendors, we’re a much more sophisticated area than we used to be. There’s more understanding here than there was 15 years ago. So that challenge isn’t what it used to be.