• USA Today, Wednesday, September 27, 2006 12:32 PM

Kohl's department stores will announce a deal today to offer Food Network kitchen products, tableware and linens starting next fall. The exclusive retail deal with E.W. Scripps' popular cable TV network follows a recent pact with designer Vera Wang. The retailer's year-old foray into exclusive merchandise has helped the value-oriented stores rebound from a 2004 sales slump. Exclusive merchandise--including the Ralph Lauren Chaps brand, Candies' shoes and apparel and four Estée Lauder makeup lines found only at Kohl's--now account for 8 percent of the soon-to-be 800-store chain's sales. Kohl's president Kevin Mansell says he hopes the 35 million monthly Food Network viewers will boost sales in the stores' already-thriving home-goods departments, which he says is its strongest area of growth. Although few TV brands besides ESPN and Nickelodeon have been able to establish themselves outside of TV, Food Network president Brooke Johnson believes Food Network can, due to its "very precise, defined focus on the world of food."

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