North Branford, CT-based Professional Cutlery Direct is doing some slicing and dicing to its business. In July, the cooking tools and accessories cataloger created what founder/CEO Terri Alpert calls “a reverse spin-off,” mailing a catalog entitled PCD’s Cooking Enthusiast.
“Ten years ago, the Professional Cutlery Direct name reflected a company that sold just knives,” Alpert says. Since then, the company has broadened its merchandise line far beyond cutlery to include a wide range of cooking tools, gourmet ingredients, fine linens, and crystal. “The name reflected who we once were, but it prevented the average prospect from having any idea of who we really are today,” Alperts says.
The 72-page Cooking Enthusiast book encompasses the entire product line. “It’ll be our primary title going forward,” Alpert says. Early returns from the mailing are encouraging, she adds: “We got a significant lift in prospect response without diminishing our house file response.”
The company will continue to use the original Professional Cutlery Direct brand for a catalog that is “more focused on cutlery, with a lower page count, and it will mail less frequently,” Alpert says.
Alpert is also using the company’s infrastructure to provide services for her new catalog, Uno Alla Volta. The upscale home decor and gifts title, whose name means “one at a time” in Italian, mailed to 150,000 names in July.
The 64-page catalog sells handcrafted items such as jewelry, paperweights, walking sticks, pocketknives, and earthenware with an average price point of about $100. Alpert plans another mailing of Uno Alla Volta for later this fall.