Mennonite pastor is marketing Amish-made furniture online

DESERT NEWS
By Michael Pollick

In this May 4, 2015 photo, Jim and Linse Miller pose for a photo with their leisure lawns chairs at their home in Sarasota, Fla.

FLORIDA---Jim Miller and his wife, Linse, have found a unique business niche, one that makes perfect sense when you think of Sarasota as a southern outpost for the nation's Amish and Mennonite communities. Miller, a former Mennonite pastor in Sarasota, and his wife have become the largest Internet-only marketers of Amish-made furniture. Operating as JMX Brands from offices in east Sarasota, and with no showroom, they are now taking more than $6 million a year in orders that they route to 190 Amish craft shops, mostly furniture makers in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. JMX operates several websites, but the main one is DutchCrafters.com. [link]