A Synergistic Approach

In selecting products, Minix says the challenge is staying true to the country theme while not growing stale. The kitchen category is the one area where there’s some latitude. “It doesn’t always have to have a country motif, since we now have four food [magazine] titles,” Minix says. “Sometimes we’ll private label a product if our test kitchen editors have used and put their stamp of approval on [it],” he adds.