"Food Product Design" magazine sold to Virgo Publishing

Business Publisher, Nov 1, 2005

Virgo Publishing (Phoenix, AZ), a diversified trade magazine publisher, has acquired "Food Product Design" (Northbrook, IL) magazine from Weeks Publishing Co. and owner/founder Robert Weeks. No terms of the deal were given.

Launched in 1991, "Food Product Design" is a monthly title for the food ingredient and flavors industry and covers the design and reformulation of food products. It has a controlled circulation of 25,000 industry professionals who design those food products for the retail and foodservice markets. Editorial includes information on new concepts, design applications, health and nutrition, industry news, new products and developments around the world.

Operations for the title, which becomes a part of Virgo's Health & Nutrition division, will remain in Illinois. The H&N division also produces "Natural Products Insider" and "HSR: Health Supplement Retailer" magazines. Virgo president Jenny Bolton said the purchase "is an important part of our plan to expand our reach beyond serving the supplement ingredient market into the food ingredient side of the business. As consumers continue to seek foods with healthy and functional ingredients, the aligning of business media covering supplement ingredients and food ingredients is natural."

Virgo, established in 1986, produces 18 b2b magazines and eight trade shows and conferences in the telecom, medical, health, lifestyle and light industrial industries. Titles include "Corporate Logo," "EndoNurse," "Wireless Fidelity," "Today's SurgiCenter," "Phone " and "New Telephony."