We were lucky to catch up with Annye Grande recently and have shared our conversation below.

Annye, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
Although I don’t believe this is unique to our industry, maintaining gross margins while respecting intentional target retail price points is a discipline that is challenging especially at this stage of our business when we have not yet hit the economies of scales higher volume will bring us down the road.

Putting aside the usual challenges of fluctuating labor costs, shipping costs and volatile tariff policies, the biggest challenge for us is production volume. Our year over year double digit growth is still shy of enabling us the pricing benefits that will have access to when we reach our tipping point.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am Annye Grande, Montreal native, founder of American luxury brand etoile.

etoile (www.etoiletotes.com) is an up and coming American luxury brand headquartered in Dallas, Tx. I am a Montréal native and launched etoile after moving to the United States in pursuit of my American dream.

etoile is entering it’s 5th year, a milestone that aligns with an aggressive growth plan which I am beyond excited to undertake and execute.

To date we won two CFDA Accessory council Award for our hero tote which is a huge honor and has given our brand some great exposure and credibility.

We are sold through upscale specialty stores across North America, Europe and UAE.
We have our own flagship stores in Dallas and Las Vegas @ the Grand Canal Palazzo Shoppes.

It’s our distinctive balance of INTELLIGENCE IN DESIGN & LUXURIOUS AESTHETICS that sets our bags apart and delights our clients who are loving our fresh take and point of view.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I am absolutely obsessive about every single detail of our products. Our quality control is above and beyond industry standards. This has been instrumental in building our brand reputation within the luxury space.

We select only the very best and most noble components for our products. Our bags are hand crafted in the US at the top factories with the highest skilled workers. This is a Northstar we have mastered and paired with a strict pricing discipline that has served us well.

Impeccable products have been instrumental in building our reputation with our customers and building our reputation within the industry.
We have been recognized for it by our peers who have selected us for CFDA Accessory Council awards two years in a row.

This is the brand equity we are very protective of as it is the foundation of building a legacy brand.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
To have survived a pandemic followed by a supply chain crisis like I have never experienced in my 25 years in this industry requires a fortitude of mind and an uncanny level of resilience.

I am in admiration of all business owners, of any size, that have navigated the past two years and are still standing.

March 2020 Covid-19 shut down resulted in all of our revenue streams going to zero with the exception of ecomm. We navigated it by standing by our employees, communicating and negotiating with our vendors and landlords. On the heels of the 2020 pandemic came 2021 supply chain crisis which affected our biggest year in sales since our inception. Again, communication and transparency with our clients and employees were instrumental to our survival.

The psychological toll this takes on you as a leader who is responsible to clients, employees and investor is not to be dismissed. It’s a one day at a time, one battle per day situation. We are still here, stronger than ever because of all that we have learned in the past two years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.etoilestar.com
• Instagram: @etoilestarofficial
• Facebook: @etoilestarofficial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/etoilestarofficial