From Deseret News archives:

QuicKutz cuts costs with local plant

Published: Sunday, June 3, 2007 12:19 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
In July 2001, Eric Ruff was a member of the Commission for Economic Development of Orem when Mark and Natasha Hixon presented an idea for a portable scrapbooking tool that used thin steel cutting dies to make die cuts on demand.

Ruff was impressed with the idea. Very impressed. He was so impressed, in fact, that three days later this longtime entrepreneur joined the Hixons to found Orem-based QuicKutz, a maker of products for scrapbooking and other crafts.

QuicKutz's product is the first use in the consumer market of chemically etched dies, an industrial process that, Ruff soon learned, was too expensive to keep QuicKutz in business if it tried to work with existing domestic suppliers.

So Ruff and his team gave up the idea of overseas manufacturing. Instead, QuicKutz's leaders built their own plant.

Within a year, the plant was making its first dies. Within two years, the plant was running smoothly and with costs lower than those of U.S. or Asian suppliers.

QuicKutz has enhanced its position with products like sets that turn die cuts into stamps, special-edition packages and both electronic and hand-held die-cutting tools.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image

Eric Ruff

previousnext

Latest comments

What???? I wanted a tie. Why are we still playing?????

I love BYU football. They are both great teams. There is always lots of...

Why does Salt Lake have a soccer team?

i havent had as much fun watching this team since oklahoma. this kind of play...

Why is the picture of Fesenko? The article is about AK. Good job, deseret news.

Real might be the first professional sports team in Utah to win a...

I think its great that not everyone in the church is close minded and...

Great call by Catholic Bishop. I am glad he is standing up too the...

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. All the rest of...

LOL, of course there is some sexism. No one in this country cares about...

Advertisements