Founded | 1949
Headquarters | Olean, New York
Top Executive | Jim Stitt, Jr., CEO
Product Category | Home Goods
Imagine a family-owned company in a small town with a lifetime of service to its residents. It sounds like the beginning of a long-lost American Dream story, especially in a moment in time that’s dominated by anything that’s “new.” But the enduring strength of Cutco, one of America’s oldest direct selling companies, lies in its steadfast service to both its customers and the community it holds dear. As Cutco celebrates its 75th birthday, its “Forever Guarantee” seems to speak as much to the company’s products as it does to Cutco’s place in the industry and its hometown.
Like New Forever
“I wouldn’t want to be in the smartphone business,” laughed Jim Stitt, Jr., Cutco’s CEO. “I don’t know what it’s like to run a company that has a consumable product. I only know a durable product.”
Cutco has defined durable for over seven decades, offering a catalog of cutlery, cookware and tools backed by the company’s Forever Guarantee—a promise that every Cutco product will last a lifetime. The company has proven itself to be just as durable as its products, operating from its headquarters in Olean, New York since 1949. Originally a product line within Alcoa, a Pennsylvania-based aluminum company, Cutco has been an independent, family-owned business since 1982, when Jim’s father, along with a team of managers, purchased the company.
“My dad was one of those early partners in 1982,” Jim explained. “The company has been a privately held family company since that time. In terms of high-end kitchen cutlery sold through direct sales, that’s what we were founded to do in 1949, and that is what we are still doing today.”
Cutco products are sold primarily through Vector Marketing, a single-level direct sales company that sells Cutco through independent sales representatives in the United States and Canada.
These sales representatives, often students, are recruited and trained to market Cutco products in their areas. They earn commissions for sales made and may qualify for a minimum commission for demonstrating the products. While many sales representatives only market Cutco for a summer, gaining valuable skills they take into future opportunities, some representatives actively sell for many years, building solid careers around Cutco’s enduring products.
“We’re making a basic tool that is standing the test of time,” Jim shared. “Knives are not something that’s a flash in the pan. It’s not a fashion thing. It’s a tool that people use in their kitchens. Human beings continue to need to eat, and they continue to need good tools in their kitchens. And the fact that we make a timeless product has helped us to stand the test of time.”
Handcrafted Community
Since 1949, Cutco cutlery has been manufactured in Olean, a small town of 14,000 residents in Western New York. Cutco is the top employer in Olean, employing over 700 people. Simply put, Cutco and the town are intertwined, one supporting the other.
“We are an economic pillar in this community,” Jim shared. “Everybody who works here understands that and takes a lot of pride in it, on top of taking pride in making a product that they feel good about the high quality of. We pride ourselves in making people decisions that may affect our business as opposed to business decisions that may affect our people. And by doing that, we have a team of people here that is fiercely loyal to this company.”
The company has two unique cultures—the community culture that’s deeply connected to the Olean area and a second family that ripples throughout the country in the Vector sales field.
As fresh faces are added to the field team each summer, Vector and Cutco are infused with a contagious youthful energy. Over their initial months with the company, many young, excited sales representatives gain invaluable business, marketing and personal development skills they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives.
In any given summer, Vector contracts with thousands of sales representatives, after interviewing and training from hundreds of independent recruiting offices. The majority of these representatives are students, so the company understands they may only market Cutco products during the summer months, but that’s long enough to invest in these future leaders.
“We teach people skills, sales skills, competence skills, public speaking skills and self-belief skills—which is a lot of what threads through direct selling,” he explained. “We invest a lot of time, money, thought and care into our people. And it’s important to us that we recognize most people aren’t going to stay with us forever. We want them to leave saying, ‘that it was a great experience—they cared about me; they made me better.’ And when they look back on their careers, we like the stories where they can say they got started with Vector and Cutco and how the things they learned with us put them on a path of success.”
Heritage to Hand Down
As Jim looks back at the last 75 years, he’s proud of all the ways that Cutco has stayed the same: a people-first focus; products that last a lifetime; and a commitment to the family built both in Olean and across its field offices.
So much has stayed the same, especially throughout the years Jim’s family has been at the helm of the company. But Jim is just as proud of all that’s to come at Cutco, as he stewards the company’s legacy and importance to his hometown. He’s grateful to take Cutco into its next chapter, building leaders who can help share the Cutco story in a world that often takes the fast, easy road instead of the slow and steady path his company has taken.
“There are a lot of individuals that are depending on this company to be there for them in this community and for us to keep doing what we’re doing, getting it right and not being a failed story somewhere down the line,” he shares. “For us to be able to pass this on to the next generation—and I’m not just talking about my kids—but for all the people that work in this company, that it can be a place where their kids can work and their grandkids can work, and that we can be an American success story for years to come. That’s exciting work. It’s fulfilling work that allows me to show up every day and say, okay, there’s something important for us to work on and go after.”
From the November 2024 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
