Ann Clark
America’s largest cookie-cutter maker, hand-crafting tinplate cutters and baking ingredients in Rutland, Vermont.
🇺🇸 Made in USA
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Company details
Where Ann Clark products are made
One campus does the work. Cutters are formed and hand-finished at the Quality Lane facility, and the steel arrives from American mills rather than from a container. The company points out that the people answering its phones sit in the same building.
Ann Clark specifies certified metal from mills in the United States. That matters for a product that touches food: the company cites Prop 65 lead and cadmium limits, CPSIA, Bureau Veritas country-of-origin marking, and FDA-GRAS status for food-contact metal.
Rather than outsource the ingredients line, Ann Clark built a food-safe facility on the Rutland campus and staffed it with food scientists and recipe developers. The second product family is made in the same place as the first.
The 1989 founding, the Rutland, Vermont address, the use of certified metal from United States mills, and the 2021 food-safe facility are all published by Ann Clark on annclark.com.
The story
Ann Clark was an artist. In 1989 she paired her folk-art designs with hand-painted recipe cards and launched a line of metal cookie cutters from her home in Vermont. The company that grew out of that — Ann Clark Ltd. — was, for its first years, a gift-industry business.
Her children came back to Vermont to work in it. What had been a home operation turned into the largest cookie-cutter manufacturer in the country, and then into a maker of the things you use the cutters with: food colouring, baking mixes, and baking essentials. Ann’s son Ben leads the company today.
The two halves are made in the same place. Cutters are formed and hand-finished on Quality Lane in Rutland; in 2021 the company put up a food-safe building on the same campus, with a test kitchen and food scientists, so the ingredients line would not have to be handed to a co-packer somewhere else.
Why they matter
Cookie cutters are exactly the kind of product that left. They are cheap, simple, and light — the profile of an item that a domestic manufacturer generally cannot hold. Ann Clark not only held it but became the largest maker of them in the United States.
The material choice is the tell. Buying certified metal from American mills costs more than buying coil from wherever is cheapest, and for a food-contact product it is the difference between being able to document compliance and hoping. Ann Clark publishes the standards it meets.
And when the company expanded into a completely different category — food, with a different regulatory regime and a different production process — it built the plant in Rutland rather than sourcing the line out. That is a choice about where the company wants its work to happen.
Shop Ann Clark products
Browse Ann Clark cookie cutters and baking supplies stocked on the Buy American Campaign store.
Frequently asked questions
Are Ann Clark cookie cutters made in the USA?
Yes. Ann Clark states on its own website that each cookie cutter is hand-crafted at its facility in Rutland, Vermont, from certified metal supplied by mills in the United States.
Where is Ann Clark located?
453 Quality Lane, Rutland, Vermont — the company’s manufacturing campus and offices are at the same address.
Who owns Ann Clark?
The Clark family. Founder Ann Clark started the company in 1989; her son Ben Clark leads it today.
Does Ann Clark make anything besides cookie cutters?
Yes. Baking mixes, food colouring and other baking essentials are made in a food-safe facility the company built on its Rutland campus in 2021.