CLASS NOTES
CLASS NOTES ON THE CUTTING EDGE Couple grows cookie cutter manufacturing operation The mail-order business Joel ’91 and Tammy King ’90 Hughes started 26 years ago to maximize their family time now makes hundreds of cookie cutters a day and holds the title as the largest cookie cutter supplier west of the Mississippi River. They founded and operate cookiecutter. com, which makes 1,300 unique cookie cutters in their Pleasant Valley, Missouri, warehouse. In recent years, Woman’s Day, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart and “Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond have featured the Hughes family’s cookie cutters. Joel and Tammy started their careers as teachers but wanted to own a business. So Joel’s mother, who sold H.O. Foose cookie cutters in her Iowa country store, suggested they give it a try. After attending a few craft shows and taking some orders for the cookie cutters, the business took off. “When we started, it was strictly mail order, the days before computers with 30
NORTHWEST ALUMNI MAGAZINE I FALL 2019
internet,” Tammy said. “Then the internet came and we just jumped on cookiecutter.com, which was very good timing for us.” In 2016, H.O. Foose Tinsmithing Co., through a strong relationship established with the Hughes family, made Joel and Tammy an offer they couldn’t refuse. The couple purchased the Pennsylvania operation and moved its An employee at the Hughes family’s cookie cutter business inspects a plastic equipment to their Pleasant cutter created with a 3-D printer. Valley, Missouri, warehouse. The deal allowed the family constructing plastic cookie cutters. Joel and to manufacture the tin cookie Tammy started making the plastic shapes cutters on their own and further enhanced a few years ago after they noticed a drop their ability to provide one-of-a-kind in their sales and saw the plastic cutters shapes. popping up on crafting websites. In addition to designing and making the tin cookie cutters, a room of 3-D “We bought one printer, we ran it at printers hums with the sound of machines home, and I would have to get up in the