If you decorate cakes or have ever shopped for cake-making supplies, you’re probably familiar with the Wilton brand. Its products are hard to miss as Wilton has been a sales leader in baking and cake decorating products for more than half a century. Headquartered in Woodridge, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Wilton has grown tremendously from its beginnings as a family-owned cake decorating business during America’s Great Depression.
Today, Wilton Industries sells more than 2,000 baking and food-related products, from instruction manuals and cake pans to piping bags and food coloring. Wilton products are not only sold in the United States. Leading retailers in more than 150 countries carry Wilton products. And the business continues to grow with approximately 400 new consumer products being developed annually.
It all started in 1929 when Dewey McKinley Wilton, with the help of his wife, started a small cake decorating business in Chicago. Then came the stock market crash and the nation’s Great Depression. Surrounded by high unemployment rates and bread lines, Wilton carved out a thriving niche by creating wedding cakes for famous Chicago hotels and clubs. The Wilton family business grew during the 1930s.
Decorating cakes for the rich and famous gave the Wiltons’ reputation a nice boost. So when they opened a cake decorating and candy making school for chefs and caterers, they had no problem with enrollment.
By 1947, the “Wilton Method” had become a household word among cake decorators, and a leading department store chain, JC Penney, was now promoting and selling Wilton products.
In a short time, the Wilton brand became synonymous with cake decorating supplies and schools. All of this publicity laid the foundation for Wilton’s decorating empire that continues to influence wedding cake trends.
Then in 1977, under the leadership of Wilton CEO Vince Naccarato, three diverse companies came together as Wilton Industries: Wilton Enterprises, Copco, and Weston Gallery.
Today, each division is a recognized leader in its market. Wilton Enterprises is the number one preferred brand in baking and cake decorating products, Copco is the leading designer and marketer of quality teapots and cookware, and Weston Gallery is a leader in the design and marketing of premium picture frames.
Under Naccarato’s continued leadership, the company enjoys strong sales and national distribution growth, largely attributed to “category management,” which bases marketing on tracked trends, and through “management of the supply chain”, which helps retailers reduce marketing costs. .
According to the Austin Chronicle report, the Wilton Method was the unquestioned ruler of cake decorating until the 1980s, when Martha Stewart’s methods gained popularity. Her made-from-scratch cakes and her stance that flavor is as important as decoration challenged the use of Wilton cake mixes and shortening.
However, Wilton continues to enjoy great success and lead the industry. According to Hoover’s November 2006 business report, Wilton Industries employed 650 people and reported $325 million in sales for fiscal 2005, an increase of 7.8 percent from the prior year.
For three-quarters of a century, Wilton has offered cake decorating classes throughout the United States and Canada, including the Wilton School of Cake Decorating in northern Illinois. Wilton is partially credited with bringing the intricate European method of cake decorating to the United States and Canada.
In fact, Wilton’s cake decorating classes enroll nearly 200,000 students each year from all over the world.
While many cake decorators enjoy the Wilton classroom experience, others, like the following customer, prefer to learn at their own pace at home with video instructions, such as the “Easy Cake Decorating” series.
Another ingredient in Wilton’s recipe for success is its annual “Your Take on Cake” contest, which attracts thousands of talented cake decorators from across the United States and Canada who compete for $5,000 in cash and an all-expenses-paid trip to attend The Wilton School’s two-week Master’s Course for Cake Decorating in Darien, Illinois.