A small Harvard manufacturer of kitchen gadgets sells two core products–literally.
Kernel Kutter Inc.’s namesake product adjusts to the girth of a corncob and removes the kernels with one downward thrust. It has been sold in hardware and grocery stores around the world since 1945.
Another gadget, the Pineapple Prince, has been sold for more than 60 years. It cores pineapples and is sold through catalogs and stores, including a place that knows its pineapples: the Dole Plantation gift shop on the island of Maui.
The company has racked up tens of thousands of sales, but its owner, Donald J. Wassel, said he has never stopped stop to analyze the products’ appeal.
Sales have grown steadily since it created its own Web site, Wassel said.
“When you sell about 75,000 of each a year, it is hard to tell where and when they will pop up,” Wassel said. “When I show the Kernel Kutter to people, someone will inevitably say, `I’ve seen that before.'”
Perry Reynolds, vice president of marketing for the Rosemont-based International Housewares Association, said Kernel Kutter and Pineapple Prince are recognizable because of their widespread distribution and longevity.
“[The Kernel Kutter has] been around a long time. You find them everywhere,” Reynolds said.
Although Kernel Kutter Inc. products are only a small fraction of the $6.1 billion kitchenware industry in the U.S., that line and similar gadgets are a growing piece of the market, Reynolds said.
“I haven’t been in a house that didn’t have a gadget drawer in the kitchen,” Reynolds said. “And there’s different levels of gadgetry, from spoons to avocado peelers to egg beaters. People are on the lookout for clever [devices]. A kitchen gadget offers you a solution to a problem–a creative and faster way of doing things–and the more creative, the better.
“Since a gadget is usually not that expensive, usually just a few dollars, you can afford to experiment. And you may use the gadget just a few times and throw it in the gadget drawer. But you’re still happy you bought it.”
The Pineapple Prince costs about $9; the Kernel Kutter is about $8.
Three months ago the company added the $8 Bread Bowl Cutter, invented by Wassel. It removes a round center from sourdough bread so it can hold dip.
Five people work for Kernel Kutter in the old Bowman Dairy on Jefferson Street in Harvard. Wassel bought the patents and business in 1987 after company co-founder Eric McNair died.
McNair started the firm with World War II Navy buddy Gene Smith in 1945 in a garage in Mattoon. McNair owned the patents.
“I was in management consulting and my clients were Fortune 100 companies,” Wassel said. “One year I flew 180,000 miles and spent 251 nights in hotels.
“As a consultant, I’d tell everybody else how to run his or her business. Then I thought, `Why don’t I run my own?’ Buying Kernel Kutter Inc., I came in out of the cold.
“I found my individual niche. I don’t compete with anybody. You sometimes find low-grade offshore knockoffs. But that’s really not a problem.”
