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Doris Christopher, founder of The Pampered Chef, started the business in her basement in 1980 and is now the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Corporate Growth.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times) |
Compliments to the Chef: Pampered Chef founder wins lifetime award
By Mary Wisniewski, Business Reporter
January 18, 2007
What a difference a potato peeler can make. Doris K. Christopher, a former home economics teacher, knew that people had trouble finding the time to make home-cooked meals. She figured that better tools -- sharp peelers and good cutting boards -- would make it easier for home cooks.
That simple idea, plus a $3,000 loan from a life insurance policy, launched the Pampered Chef, an Addison-based company that now counts 12 million customers worldwide.
Christopher, 61, is this year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Corporate Growth Chicago.
"It's a hometown success story," said John Weber, chairman of ACG Chicago's awards committee. Christopher will be honored at an ACG dinner tonight.
A Chicago native, Christopher started a business out of her basement in 1980 because she was looking for a way to stay home with her daughters, then 5 and 8. The business combined her knowledge of kitchen tools with her love of teaching, Christopher said.
"The idea was to make these products available so people could purchase them," Christopher said. "People didn't know about good quality cutting boards that would last, and vegetable peelers that were sharp enough. Sometimes they had things in their kitchen that were broken. They seemed to have odd lots of measuring tools."
Christopher looked through her own kitchen cabinets for favorites, found out who made them, and how she could buy them for resale. She assembled a line of products, including a good can opener and vegetable peeler, and demonstrated them through "kitchen shows."
Around the fourth year, Christopher and her husband, Jay, had to move the business out of the basement into a small distribution center. The company now has 900 employees in Addison, as well as 60,000 independent contractors in the U.S. and three other countries who sell the products through home sales parties.
Christopher tells aspiring entrepreneurs that they must take what they love and figure out how to make money from it. Then they have to work hard.
"If you love what you do, it's easier to work hard than if you're trying to push yourself to work a lot of hours on something you don't like," Christopher said.
Christopher also recommends staying focused and not getting sidetracked -- something that almost happened to her.
"When we started this business, we became good at distribution," Christopher said. "People said, 'You're so good at distribution, you should do distribution for other companies.'" While this idea had appeal, Christopher said it would have sidetracked her from her original concept, which "turned out to be a truly winning strategy."
Berkshire Hathaway bought Pampered Chef in 2002, though Christopher remains chairwoman.
ACG Chicago educates its members on corporate development and mergers and acquisitions.
ACG Chicago started the Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2002. Other winners have been Gordon Segal of Crate & Barrel, Norman Bobins of LaSalle Bank, Larry Levy of Levy Restaurants, and Bill Wrigley Jr. of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.
mwisniewski@suntimes.com
Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group original link: Compliments to the Chef: Pampered Chef founder wins lifetime award
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