Photo: Ann Clark Cookie Cutters.
Cow cookie cutters are among the many unusual shapes at this Rutland, Vermont, company.
When I started downsizing to move to the new place, I passed along or weeded out all sorts of possessions. Although I wanted to try making Christmas cookies in the new, tiny kitchen, I decided I didn’t need two Christmas trees, two snowmen, two stars. But today’s story makes me want to add shapes like cows, pigs, sharks, and ice cream cones.
Jordan Barry writes at Seven Days Vermont, “For many holiday bakers, the first step in the festive process is a trip into the depths of a forgotten cupboard. Behind lidless Tupperware and single-use appliances, they’ll find a jumble of gingerbread people, stars and trees. And, if those cookie cutters are good ones, there’s a high likelihood they were made in Vermont.
“Inconspicuously tucked into the warehouse land of Rutland’s Quality Lane, Ann Clark is the United States’ largest producer of cookie cutters, selling 4 to 5 million per year. Founded in 1989 by the artist for whom it is named and now led by her son, Ben Clark, the company sits behind only Chinese mega-manufacturers on the global cookie cutter scale. And as it continues to grow, the family-owned operation is expanding into all aspects of the baking biz, from food coloring to cake mixes.
“Cookie cutters are just one of the items that Ann’s art inspired, Ben told Seven Days on a tour of the facility in early November. … The convivial CEO described a folksy drawing of a pig that his mother and his business-consultant father had made into cutting boards, Christmas tree ornaments, coasters and cookie cutters to sell at trade shows. The cookie cutter, with a handmade recipe card tied to it, was the runaway hit.
“Soon, that pig was joined by a cow and a sheep. In those days, the family focused on selling their cookie cutters to gift stores and making custom promotional ones for businesses such as McDonald’s and Under Armour. Now, Ann Clark has an arsenal of roughly 3,500 shapes — around 700 of which are currently available — that range from simple numbers to holiday staples to a ‘fashion doll head,’ which surged in sales this summer around the release of Barbie.
“New shapes can be made in a day, inspired by trends, pop culture moments, competitors’ products, and creative ideas from employees and bakers around the country. There’s a cookie cutter for each of the year’s ’26 events,’ Ben said — a list that includes Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.
“Of all 3,500, Ann’s favorite shape is the watering can. It became Ben’s sentimental favorite, too, after they realized it was the company’s worst seller. Any shape that does worse is immediately cut. …
“The company works with many of the top cookiers in the world, who test new shapes and send their elaborately decorated samples to Ann Clark HQ. Digital content manager Annora McGarry catalogs them in a ‘cookie library’ and stores the physical cookies in an office closet for use in photo shoots.
“Ann Clark cookie cutters’ high-profile fans include the team at King Arthur Baking in Norwich. The companies have worked together ‘for many years, and they are a wonderful partner,’ said Nathalie Morin, associate product manager at King Arthur.
“Cookie cutter designs should have enough detail to be easy to decipher, without small, pointy elements that will make dough stick or overbake, she explained. Metal cutters make the crispest cut, and rolled edges make pressing down more comfortable. …
“The cutters’ American-made status is a selling point for many, Ben said, but not always for the most obvious reason. … ‘It’s really about lead time.’
“When a shape runs out at the Ann Clark factory, it takes the production team just about nine minutes to change the die — a heavy metal block in the shape of a cutter’s final form — and start a replacement run. The new cutters are packaged and shipped by the following morning, whereas it could take months to import replacements from China, Ben said. During the busiest times of year, 12 to 15 employees across two shifts change dies 50 times a day, producing up to 500 cookie cutters per run. …
“When the business started, a company called Creative Products made the cookie cutters in Pennsylvania. Ann Clark slowly brought manufacturing in-house over the course of seven years, eventually acquiring Creative Products — and its accounts with stores such as Sur la Table, Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond and Crate & Barrel.
” ‘We realized we’d been trying to convince gift stores that a cookie cutter is a great gift,’ Ben said. ‘Every kitchen store already knows what a cookie cutter is and why it’s great. We could barely keep up.’ …
“The team tested a host of private-label products, including food coloring, sprinkles, icing mix and meringue powder. The food coloring, like the pig design that launched a cookie cutter empire, was the clear winner. It kept selling out, and the manufacturer couldn’t keep up. With the help of food scientists, the Ann Clark team developed its own recipe and built a separate, food-safe facility down the road.
“That facility now produces 3,000 tubes of food coloring a day, along with products such as royal icing and fondant.
” ‘The food coloring is amazing,’ said Paulina Thompson, who launched her Essex Junction home-based biz, Paulina’s Sweets, in February 2021. ‘You can achieve the colors really fast, especially for that Christmas red that everybody wants.’ “
More at SevenDays, here.
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