An American Manufacturing Story
The KutRite story begins with brothers Ralph and Omero Neri, the sons of Italian immigrants that came to America to work in the copper mines of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As many children who grew up in the 1930s Depression Era, they sought a better life, Ralph as a mechanic and tool maker and Omero as an engineer. And their aspirations led them to the bustling manufacturing center of Detroit.
Founder Ralph Neri, circa 1938
In the 1940s, Detroit grew into a major manufacturing center, spurred by automobile and wartime engineering and production. It was in the post war business climate that the brothers formed KutRite Manufacturing Company, in 1947. KutRite began as a manufacturer of Huntington Grinding Wheel Dressers, a hand tool for dressing grinding wheels. From its beginning, KutRite established an ethic for quality by opting for a more labor intensive milling process to manufacture their dresser cutters, which yielded a substantially higher tool quality.
By the late 1950s, as Concrete Scarifiers were developed for cleaning shop floors and preparing surfaces for coatings, KutRite began supplying their milled steel cutters to the manufacturers of these machines.
KutRite remained a family owned business until 2002, when Ralph O. Neri, the founder’s son, reorganized the company with new partners as KRMC, LLC. In 2016, Mr. Neri bought out the last remaining member of this partnership.
KutRite immediately entered the carbide cutter segment of the surface preparation industry and introduced its Full Face™ cutter design in 2004. Shortly after that, came the introduction of KutRite’s own manufactured line of Concrete Scarifiers.
In 2008 the Conquer Series™ of Concrete Grinders and Polishers was introduced, making its product debut that year at the World of Concrete in Las Vegas. The show’s “Most Innovative Product” honors were awarded to the Conquer Twin in 2012 and the Conquer 32 in 2016 .
- Our products are American-made in Romulus, MI, near Detroit.
- As it has for 70 years, we take pride in developing products with operator and contractor needs in mind.
- Our engineering and manufacturing departments are committed to listening and providing real world solutions for our customer’s needs and to continually improve our products for the end goals of innovation, greater production and less downtime.
- We aspire to manifest Detroit’s “can-do” spirit and to serve our customers with honesty and respect.
- We are committed to customer satisfaction and are willing to do what it takes to provide the products and services the industry requires.
- We are also committed to provide our customers with the knowledge they need to be successful contractors and businessmen with our KutRite University program.
Our staff and our distributors are always available to assist you with any and all of your questions, concerns and needs.
We want to help you do your job better!