Ann Clark Cookie Cutters

Volkswagen had its beetle; Walt Disney, his mouse. But of all the animals that Vermont entrepreneur Ann Clark could have sent to market, she chose a little pig—and ended up with a baking-supplies empire.

The story begins around the holidays some 35 years ago. Clark, who graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in art, always had a knack for making things. She’d already been creating and selling toys and crafts from her family’s Rutland home when, late one night, as she was simultaneously painting ornaments and baking Christmas cookies, inspiration struck. As Clark recalled in an interview with the Rutland Herald, she looked at one of her most popular ornament designs, “and then I thought to myself, this pig would make a really cute cookie cutter.”

It did, and people noticed. Founded in 1989, Clark’s fledgling company would grow to become the nation’s largest cookie-cutter manufacturer, which today turns out more than 4 million cookie cutters a year—all made right in Rutland—with 700 to 800 individual designs in production at any given time.

While Clark, now 84, still comes into the factory almost every day, Ann Clark Ltd. has been overseen since 1998 by her son, Ben. Under his leadership as CEO, manufacturing has expanded to include related products such as food coloring, baking ingredients, and baking mixes (think: French crepes, Belgian waffles, gourmet scones).

On the cookie-cutter side, meanwhile, the company is continually trying out its hot-from-the-oven designs. Channeling Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, heart sunglasses were a big hit this past summer. There are new sugar skull shapes for fall’s Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and this holiday season will see a centerpiece cookie-cutter set for creating pre-portioned cookie “pies.”

Among the top 20 longtime best-sellers, the spirit of Christmas abounds in gingerbread men, snowflakes, and a vintage truck with tree. Alas, there is no plump little pig on that list. But as it turns out, Ann Clark’s success today may be best represented by a surprisingly simple cookie cutter that’s outsold all the rest: the number “1.”

To learn more about or to buy Ann Clark products, go to annclark.com; you can also visit the Ann Clark store page on Amazon.

<<PHOTO>>

Check the back of your kitchen drawer, and you just might find one of Ann Clark’s original pig cookie cutters, circa 1989.

Katherine Keenan

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