Cutterschoice.com: About Us

In 1952 W.C. (Bill) Bethel purchased "Farm & Garden Tractor" a small outdoor power equipment dealership. Over the next few years Bill sold power equipment and chainsaws to professional and rural users in the area. In 1956 came the invention of the one man chainsaw and sales exploded. Bill, seeing opportunity, made an insightful decision to sell direct to professionals, semi-pro and rural users saw chain, guide bars, sprockets and files. Most of these items were sold only through servicing dealers and the pricing was heavily dictated by OEM suppliers. Bill then founded "Factory Warehouse" with the idea of selling direct to the user at discount prices.

Over the years growth demanded several other locations: Bellingham, WA; Denver, CO; Erie, PA; Jackson, TN; Sacramento, CA; and Tallahassee, FL. In 1976 Bill was joined by Norval Hellofs who was a logistic and accounting expert. They decided to change the company name to "Zip Penn". "Zip" referred to the Homelite Chainsaw popular at that time, and "Penn" stood for the first office they opened in Pennsylvania.

Improvements in logistics in freight during the 1980's like the rise of UPS, Fedex and other carriers, proved that they could better service their customer base by operating out of one location. The decision was made to merge all branches to Erie, PA.

By 1989 with chainsaw parts on the decline, Lawnmower and Trimmer parts were added to their product offerings. This opened up the market for direct sales to landscapers and ground maintenance professional. Satisfied customers encouraged them to expand their product offering, and so in 1995 arborist supplies were introduced.

In the early 90's Bill was joined in the company by his two sons, W.A. (Bill) Bethel and A.R. (Andy) Bethel. By 1995, business had far outgrown their old name and "Cutter's Choice" was chosen to better describe their current product mix.

Today, Cutter's Choice is committed to selling chainsaw parts, arborist supplies and lawnmower parts to their core group of customers which include arborists, woodcutters, landscapers and do-it-yourselfers at discount prices!