bo bébé
Calgary,  Alberta (1995 - present)

History:
After selling the restaurant in French Guyana, getting married in South America and moving back to Canada.   I was thrilled to be expecting our first baby.  After a quick visit back to France to visit friends and family before coming to settle in Calgary; we settled into family mode.

I started looking around the city for quality baby gear, natural body products and baby apparel and soon discovered there was a huge market deficit here.  I had just spent the last 2 weeks traipsing around Paris and Strasbourg in the most amazing boutiques and baby shops and was sorely disappointed with Calgary's line-up.

By the time my son was 3 months old, I was already working on a business plan between feedings, naps and diaper duty!  By the time he was 5 months old I had secured a $2,000 start up loan and my home-based business was born.

Starting as a home-based business allowed me the flexibility I needed to be a mom and business owner.  i started as one of the forerunners of mom-owned, home based business in Canada, doing one-on-one consulting, Home Parties, Mail Order & Catalogue Sales.  Every baby item was carefully selected based on quality, innovation & market research, providing a small but concise product catalogue which eventually would be the starting line-up for the first retail outlet. 

I proudly launched products Canadians had not even seen in the mainstream market (such as Avent, Sleep Sacs, Bear View Mirors, Preggie Pops, Bumbo, Britax and Oioi Diaper bags).    If you are in the juvenile industry, then you know that the "word-of'moms" is extremely powerful and fast moving!   Sales continued to grow exponentially along with a total of 6 new Home Party Sales Reps spread around the country.   The Home Party Sales & Mail Order Sales were consistent and I began development on a second Business Plan to venture into the retail world.
With the birth of my of my second son in 1999, the company then boasted 9 Home Party Sales Reps across Canada and strong Mail Order sales around the country.  At that time the decision was made to put the 2nd business plan into action and venture into the brick-and-mortar retail arena.   I researched the demographics of my current customer base and the first kiosk was opened in Calgary, AB at Market Mall.  Again, it was an instant, enormous success with Cadillac Fairview Corp. agreeing to a second kiosk “piggy-backed” onto the first while they waited for an actual store front for us.  A second kiosk was opened at Chinook Center and a third at South Center in Calgary.

With strong sales and positive customer feedback, these kiosks led to the birth of the first retail store in Shawnessy Village, December of 2000.  This of course progressed to the second retail store in Crowfoot Village the summer of 2001 and the 3rd store in Market Mall in November of 2001.  In 2005, the original Shawnessy Village store moved 3 doors down and tripled its size from 1500 sq. ft. to 4600 sq.ft. and added a phenomenal 1500 sq. ft Play Space & Program & a trial In-house Ultra-sound.  

 2005, in-house, private label textile products were being manufactured in Canada for my stores with great success and by mid 2006 the company’s first line of, linens, newborn layette and textiles hit the store shelves.   February 2006 birthed the first franchisee and October 2006 brought 2nd.  bo bébé was now a retail chain offering franchise opportunities!  2006 also brought forth a magazine cover with a new, emerging business magazine, Mompreneur, a nomination for Canada's Top 40 Under 40 and numerous other accolades.  bo bébé's exposure from the Mompreneur cover article was fantastic and sales continued to grow exponentially.

January 2007, the company’s own private label brand of, baby laundry soap, baby body products & maternity body products were launched to enormous acclaim with consumers.  The bo bebe lifestyle private label lines has earned and still maintains it's standing in our top 3 best suppliers for the stores based on sales volume!

2008 brought our first big-box store in Westhills Town Center at a whopping 6700 square feet, followed by the move of our Crowfoot location to it's power center location in Crowfoot Village.  Then, March 2009 birthed our 5th bo bébé mall location at South Center Mall as well as a fresh renovation of the Market Mall location.  2008 also brought another stellar team of franchisees who purchased the Westhills location and within one year, they purchased the Market Mall location as well.

To date, my stores have grossed over $30 million and are still consistently voted as Calgary's Best Baby Independent Baby Stores (coming in behind retail giants like Wal-mart, Toys R us or Sears).  We also consistently win the Parent's Choice Awards from CalgaryChild Magazine as well as are repeatedly nominated for the Consumer's Choice Awards, best baby store.

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bo bébé -Market Mall photos

This 1400 square foot retail store was our first mall location back in 2001.  We were very excited to renovate it completely to match our big box 6700 square foot store, color themes and design concept in March 2010!