Virgo Publishing Acquires Food Product Design Magazine

Virgo Publishing Acquires Food Product Design Magazine

PHOENIXIn late October, VirgoPublishing acquired Northbrook, Ill.-based Food ProductDesign magazine, the leading publication in the foodingredient and flavors industry. Food Product Design operationswill remain in the Northbrook office, with Bob Weeks maintaining his role aspublisher, Lynn Kuntz continuing in her position as editor, and Michael Leonardas national sales manager.

Food Product Design willcontinue to fulfill its mission of delivering practical, use-it-now, take it tothe bench editorial to those in the food industry who are involved in developingproducts for the retail, foodservice and functional food markets, said BobWeeks, publisher of Food Product Design.The prospect of bringing Virgo Publishings capabilities and experience inthe areas of trade shows, conferences, information systems and electronic mediato bear on the Food Product Design franchiseis very exciting. It will allow us to further solidify FoodProduct Designs position as the industrysleading product development content and information source while significantlyincreasing value to both our reader and advertiser audiences. I am truly excitedabout the future of Food Product Design asa part of the Virgo Publishing family.

Virgo Publishing produces more than 18 business magazinetitles and eight trade shows and conferences. The Health & Nutritiondivision of Virgo Publishing publishes Natural ProductsINSIDER and HSR: HealthSupplement Retailer magazines and produces the largestevent for the nutritional ingredients business, SupplySide. SupplySide, launched in 1997, produces two shows per year,SupplySide East and SupplySide West. More than 750 booths for nutritionalingredients are on display at SupplySide West, making it the largest show in theworld for the supplement ingredient industry.

Acquiring Food Product Design isan important part of our plan to expand our reach beyond serving the supplementingredient market into the food ingredient side of the business, said JennyBolton, president of Virgo Publishing.We currently have a growing readershipand attendee base from the food ingredient business, and this merger will allowus to expand more quickly into the food segment of the market. As consumerscontinue to seek foods with healthy and functional ingredients, the aligning ofbusiness media covering supplement ingredients and food ingredients is natural.This acquisition positions us perfectly to take advantage of the growth boththese markets will enjoy in the future.

Food Product Design will become partof the Health & Nutrition division of Virgo Publishing under the leadershipof Peggy Jackson, director of publishing. Jackson stated, We are ecstatic tojoin forces with the Food Product Design team.The synergy of our two groups uniting will bring great value to all of ourreaders, advertisers and industries. This will make our already successfulmagazines, events and communications services even better.

Positive reaction from the industry greeted the announcement.As DSM Nutritional Products has strong relationships with both FoodProduct Design and Virgo Publishing, we see FoodProduct Design as a perfect complement for Virgo,helping to expand its presence within the food and beverage markets, saidLynda Doyle, director of business development, DSM Nutritional Products. Asthe worlds leading innovator of specialty ingredients for the dietarysupplement, food and beverage markets, DSM Nutritional Products sees the newVirgo acquisition as creating an even stronger opportunity for us to creategreater awareness within these key markets.

Paula Nurnberger, marketing manager at P.L.Thomas, agreed thedevelopment was a natural fit. Food Product Design isone of the premier publications for industry professionals in the food andbeverage development area, she said. The editorial is well researched byexperienced writers and experts, with a top-notch inhouse team. As the food andnutritional arenas are increasingly crossing over in the functional foodsand supplements areas, the meshing of these two professional organizations is afantastic move.

Virgo Publishing, founded in 1986, is based in Phoenix, andproduces leading business-to-business titles and trade shows/conferences in thetelecom, medical, health, lifestyle and light industrial industries. VirgoPublishing, a diversified business media company, employs more than 130 talentedindividuals.

Food Product Design

Getting to know the newest member of Virgo PublishingsHealth & Nutrition Division

Year Founded: 1991
Frequency:Monthly
Circulation: Approximately30,100

Readership: The majority of FoodProduct Design readers are directly involved inproduct development in the processed foods industry, including research anddevelopment (R&D) scientists and chefs, food process engineers and sensoryscientists, as well as management. Others who read the magazine for anunderstanding of the concepts and trends in the food industry includeprofessionals who work

in basic research, quality assurance/quality control,marketing, packaging and purchasing. These people work throughout the industryat retail giants, such as Kraft Foods, Tyson and Unilever, or for smallerentrepreneurial companies, like Frontera Foods; at food-ingredient suppliers,such as ADM and Cargill; and at foodservice chains including McDonalds, Panera BreadCompany and Yum! Brands.

Editorial Focus: Food Product Design iscommitted to satisfying the informational needs of people who design new andreformulated food products for the retail and foodservice markets. It is themagazine written for food product developers by the insiders and expertsweknow what kind of information you need, and we know how to deliver it in a waythat is informative, timely, useful and reader-friendly. While the main focus ison ingredients and formulation, we bring together information that bearsdirectly on the R&D function, such as nutrition, processing, packaging,testing and analyses, quality and trends.

Key contacts:

Publisher: Robert Weeks Editor:Lynn A. Kuntz
ManagingEditor: Douglas Peckenpaugh
NationalSales Manager: Michael Leonard
MidwestSales Manager: Bonnie McColl

Q&A with Publisher Robert Weeks

Natural Products INSIDER brings youthis Q&A with the publisher of our new sister publication, FoodProduct Design. Robert Weeks started Food ProductDesign in 1991 and has been at the helm since thatpoint.

His seasoned staff of professionals on the sales, editorialand design team have helped build the magazine to the market leading positionwithin the food ingredient arena.

INSIDER:Why did you choose to launch FoodProduct Design?

Robert Weeks: During the mid to late 1980s, thebusiness-to-business food industry publishing arena was dominated by severalmagazines that can best be described as classic horizontals, i.e., all things toall disciplines both editorially and in circulation. At the same time, becauseof the growing importance of technology in product development and, therefore,the emergence of the research and development (R&D) function as the drivingforce, control and decision maker in the selection of flavor and ingredientsystems and product, flavor and ingredient advertising exploded to where itrepresented fully 50 percent of ad space andsince almost all flavor andingredient ads were four-colorclose to 60 percent of ad dollars. This createdan imbalance where the majority of ad pages and dollars were coming from flavorand ingredient suppliers, but on average the existing magazines devoted only 15percent to 20 percent of their editorial to subjects touching on flavor andingredient applications.

I became acutely aware of a growing discontent among bothflavor and ingredient suppliers (advertisers) and the general R&D community(readers) that the existing magazines were not satisfying either of their needs.It occurred to me that there was a great opportunity for a new publication thatwould devote 100 percent of its editorial content to satisfying the R&Dcommunitys informational needs, which would also automatically create thenear perfect environment for flavor and ingredient advertisingcomplete focusfor both advertisers and readers with no waste. It seemed a perfect situationwhere there was a strong need in both the reader and advertiser audiences for anew magazineFood Product Design!

INSIDER: What sets Food ProductDesign apart from other offerings in this market?

Weeks: Food Product Design standsapart from other food publications because of its editorial mission and how itis executed. The mission has not changed from the beginning: To be theleading food industry publication delivering practical, use-it-now,take-it-ontothe- bench product development information to those individuals whoare involved in designing and developing food and beverage products for theretail, foodservice, and functional foods markets. What really makes themission a reality is the voice that our editors and writers haveestablished, which is held in high regard for its easy reading, conversational tone combined with the highest credibility with our readersbuilt up over 15 years. Basically, our readers and advertisers know, If youread it in Food Product Design,you can believe it!

INSIDER:Why did you choose to partner with Virgo Publishing inthis endeavor?

Weeks: I have been approached by several suitorsover the past several years, but I always broke off the conversation very earlyon as none of them convinced me that they either truly understood my babyor would take good care of Food Product Design afterI might leave several years down the road. In Virgo Publishing, I found acompany that more than satisfied me on both those criteria and, as an addedbonus, Virgos capabilities in the areas of trade shows, seminars, electroniccommunication, Web site development, electronic buyers guides and more will giveus tremendous opportunities to build the Food ProductDesign franchise in a number of ways to furtherincrease our already great value to both our readers and advertisers. The futurelooks very exciting.