STORY BY MEGAN DEMAREST
Ann Clark, the largest cookie cutter manufacturer in the United States, is a homegrown company that continues to expand its product line to include baking supplies and delicious mixes to make any baker’s life easier and it all began right here in Vermont!
When I saw the giant, square-shaped box sitting on my front steps, I instantly got the feeling that Christmas had arrived early. Indeed, it had. Inside this package were several of the ingredients and tools I needed to test my creative hand at baking and decorating holiday cookies to delight my family and friends, all courtesy of Ann Clark. I unboxed the items with glee: pre-cut sheets of French parchment paper to line my baking pans, royal icing mix, piping bags, an assortment of gel food colors, a recipe booklet, and of course, cookie cutters in a variety of shapes to satisfy all my holiday decorating desires.
Ann Clark is a real, live person, not just a brand name. From humble beginnings in her garage decades ago, Ann Clark Ltd. in Rutland has now become the largest cookie cutter manufacturer in the United States. They make approximately 4 million cookie cutters annually with around 700 different shapes that are sold in 2,500 stores around the United States, online via Amazon and their own website, and in 19 countries throughout the world. The growth the company has achieved over time is a direct result of hard work, determination, and practical know-how. Add in the burst of creativity needed to bring beautiful design to cookie enthusiasts and bakers everywhere, and you’ve got the Ann Clark empire, right here in the Green Mountain State. I had the pleasure of chatting with Ben Clark, Ann’s son and CEO of the company, while taking a little break from my holiday cookie decorating adventure.
I knew that Ben’s parents, Ann and John, were not originally from Vermont, so I started with one of my favorite questions: What brought them here in the first place? “My parents were living in Maryland, married, pregnant with my oldest brother, and they were saying: ‘We don’t want to raise our kids in DC,’” shares Ben. His father had gone to Camp Keewaydin on Lake Dunmore in Addison County when he was younger and that gave him the idea to check out Vermont. “They literally flew into Rutland, my dad found a job at the Howe Scale Corporation, and they moved to Vermont a couple months later,” he added. As the Clarks planted roots in Rutland with their growing family, Ann, an artist and painter, began creating artwork for small companies throughout the state. She painted a pig shape that took off and was made into a variety of items: cutting boards, ornaments, and, of course, metal cookie cutters. The cookie cutters became popular, and as more animal shapes were added, they decided to attach recipes to them and sell them at gift shows. In 1990, due to the growing popularity of her homemade cookie cutters, Ann and John started Ann Clark Cookie Cutters, which has now simply become Ann Clark as they’ve added much more to the brand since then.
“I grew up in Vermont,” continues Ben, “went to school here at UVM, moved to North Carolina, went to grad school there, and then my wife and I moved to Annapolis, Maryland. I was at a great job at Black and Decker. She was on a career track at a law firm, loving life, tons of friends, tons to do. And then she was pregnant with my oldest daughter. And I was like, ‘Hey, what do you think about moving to Vermont?’ She said, ‘This sounds familiar.’ We talked to my parents about it. My dad got sick, and spending time with him before he passed became a priority. We were able to spend a year or so together before his passing, after which I took over the company. It sounds sad, but it ultimately got us back to Vermont. That was about 20-plus years ago now.”
With a background in engineering and business, making and selling things like cookie cutters was a natural fit for Ben. When things first started out, a third-party company was making the cookie cutter designs while Ann designed the recipe cards. They’d manually attach the cards for custom orders, like college mascots and the Michelin Man. Ben soon realized that it would be much more practical if they started making the cookie cutters in-house, giving them more control over product and inventory. Eventually, they bought the third-party company that was making their cutters, thus inheriting the factory with all the machinery. Ann Clark Ltd. started selling beyond custom orders and gift products and made their way into kitchen supply stores. With upgraded machinery built to Ben’s specifications, they were able to grow and grow, making their own shapes by studying what was popular and giving bakers what they wanted. Gingerbread boys, stars, hearts, unicorn heads, and much more can be found in their current inventory. By adopting the concept of “lean manufacturing,” they were able to make smart, calculated risks in what shapes to produce. They could be nimble and respond to current trends (Taylor Swift’s guitar, anyone?) without worrying about having too much unsold inventory.
“Lean manufacturing was developed by Toyota,” explains Ben. “It’s all about economic lot size. Why do we have to make 5,000 items at a time? Can we make 250 items at a time? Because then we can do more items, and just make them more often. If it sells well, we make it all the time. If it doesn’t sell well, we won’t make any more. It took a lot of work, but it’s allowed us to have a lot more shapes, and not grow our inventory. We rarely have obsolete inventory. VMEC.org is the organization that really taught us all the lean stuff.” (VMEC is the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center located in Randolph Center, Vermont.)
As they add more food products to their line, Ben has been bolstered by other Vermont businesses that have been willing to share their operational procedures. “We’re learning more about food manufacturing than I’ve ever imagined,” he says. “We know how to make hard goods, but the addition of food and all the new regulations that come with it is a really interesting adventure. We have a pick and pack facility where we have 720 different items in stock for picking orders. I was laying out the room, and I thought, I bet somebody’s done this before. So, I called Vermont Country Store. They gave me tours and showed me how to do it. I’ve been to Rhino Foods up in Burlington. We’re going to Olivia’s Croutons in a couple weeks. I’ve toured a bunch of factories in Vermont. You tour and you learn. Other Vermont companies have toured here, everybody’s pretty open to that, which is great, because none of us are competing.”
With the rush of the holiday season now in full swing, Ann Clark headquarters is bustling with activity, including tastings. Several months ago, they hired Research & Development Chef Laura Kanya to develop new recipes for their packaged mixes. They already make pancake, waffle, Liège waffle, cake and frosting mixes, and individual ingredients like espresso powder and meringue powder. So, what’s next on the tasting menu? Gourmet scone, gourmet cookie, and French crepe mixes are coming soon in 2025, among many other helpful (and fun) ingredients for the burgeoning home baker. With thoughts of new Ann Clark products to sample dancing in my head, I remembered my sugar cookies-baked, cooled, and ready to be decorated. I revealed to Ben that although I have done some cookie decorating in the past, it is still somewhat unknown territory, and I’d never made my own royal icing before. He shared his thoughts with me about taking the time to learn and the resources that Ann Clark has to offer.
“It’s funny, living in the South as you meet people, I’d say, ‘Oh, do you ski?’ and someone would say, ‘I had the most terrifying experience in my life, and I’m never doing it again.’ I’ve heard that like 20 times,” he laments. “If somebody teaches you how to ski, it’s not that hard. If somebody teaches you how to mountain bike, it’s not that hard. I met some people that tried cookie decorating, and they said, ‘This is a nightmare,’ because they didn’t know how to do it. If we teach people how to do this, they’re going to have a great time with it. Part of what we’re trying to do with our website, our YouTube channel, "and with our hundreds of tutorials and recipes is to help folks enjoy the process by saying, ‘You’re new to this. Let us show you how to do it. Because if you do it and you have fun, you’ll do it again.’”
That’s my goal with the holiday cookies I’m decorating: Learn and have fun while doing it. The tutorials on AnnClark.com that Ben referenced ARE extremely helpful, and if you aren’t an expert cookie decorator already, I highly recommend looking at them— several times, in fact. You can find easy tutorials to cover every possible decorating season, as well as how to make different consistencies of royal icing for different purposes. I’ve been watching them and using the techniques, and I know that in time, I will master them and wow my friends and family at the next holiday gathering. Speaking of which, I was curious to know how Ben and his family and the Ann Clark team like to celebrate the holidays. Obviously, delicious baked goods are involved, but what else?
“We try to go skiing as a family on Christmas day,” shares Ben. “Get up, open presents, have a big breakfast, then go skiing. We ski Pico and Killington, but Pico is only eight minutes away, and it’s fun. We’ll run into virtually all our friends who ski, so two or three other families doing the same thing. If it’s nice weather, there’ll be a bunch of people out there. The kids are in their 20s now, so we have time for that. For our Ann Clark holiday party, we come in, divide up into teams and play a bunch of games. We play cornhole, foursquare, Jenga. The entire company is standing around a table with 2-on-2 Jenga as this thing grows. That’s been pretty fun. By the time we get to Christmas, our busy season is done.” Translation: the Ann Clark team can really relax and let off some steam.
As I thank Ben for his time, his stories, and his wisdom, I can feel the pull of the sugar cookies luring me back to the kitchen. Heading toward my color palette of royal icing, I conjure some words of encouragement for myself that I will share with any baker trying something new: do your research, be patient, get messy, and have fun! Thanks to Ann Clark, I’m ready to dive in."
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