We were lucky to catch up with Rénald Dubarry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rénald thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

We are different from the chip industry because we do not have the same expectations for our customers.
Indeed we sought to make the best chips in the world, this is the starting point of our company, then we wanted it to be profitable. So we talked about the product first and then we talked about money.
We wanted a large chip cooked in extra virgin olive oil.
So how can we ensure that our customer can have this product that is not broken? We opted for the effective metal can to protect our chips but also effective for conservation and use because we can close and open the can several times in a simple way and close it again with the same simplicity.
In addition, it is 100% recyclable, which is an asset for our ecological approach.
Then we received our production machines but we had to adapt the manufacturing to our machines, so we stir our chips by hand so as not to break them.
Then in our desire to make something exceptional we contacted flavor manufacturers for our chips and there too the problem was impossible to create quality natural flavors without artificial flavoring, without glutamate, or without preservatives so we decided to manufacture our own products to flavor our chips.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

litys is a family and artisanal business.
We are of French origin and I have always worked in gastronomy, cheese refiner, finder of exceptional European products, truffles, caviar, Italian or Spanish ham, olive oil ……. it has been my job for more than 10 years and several times recognized by the French press.
I have been a supplier to several star chefs, they trusted me for my work for my quality in finding products of taste pleasures.
But I wanted to make my own product and I wanted a product that would be appreciated by everyone and why not chips.
The second most consumed snack in the United States, a product for children as well as for our grandparents, a product for everyone.
I already knew chips made in Spain only cooked with extra virgin olive oil ….. so we started from this starting point, the olive oil that I knew very well …. aberquina, picual ……. oils from Spain, Greece, Italy.
I also had a strong knowledge of grocery products because I myself had businesses selling cheese, delicatessen and charcuterie so we knew that we had to come up with an atypical product, very good and original but all while respecting traditions.
I am very proud to have created Litys in particular, it is a new start in life for my whole family in this country that we love, the United States.
We represent this gastronomic fusion that exists between French traditions and a strong demand for better gastronomic products from our American customersas I often say we have the desire to make the best chips in the world in the United States where the chip was created. A gourmet natural chip that respects traditions cooked in quality oil.
I am also very proud to work with local farmers, it allows us to revalue the fabulous work of these people who are often in the shadow of distributors.
We have a datil pepper manufacturer in St. Augustine, a honey manufacturer in Jupiter, an onion manufacturer in Homstead and also a lime farmer.
As for the potatoes, we regularly change the harvest region in order to have a fresh potato without too much sugar to keep a light and golden color

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

we financed our business ourselves but it was very difficult to start our activity, we arrived in an unknown country where we had to respect the rules, laws and customs. It took us more than 10 months to be able to manufacture our first chips, to confront the rules and we really believed with my wife that we would never succeed. This caused us a lot of financial problems… we have a new shareholder who has entered the company which has allowed us to continue the adventure but we are still looking for another shareholder in order to develop a new perfume and a new format……Here in the United States everything goes very quickly and we have to be reactive to the requests of our customers, our resellers ask us for a smaller can to be transported to school in a bag ….. and we are also asked for a new perfume…….
we have had a lot of doubts, questions but it is good to question ourselves from time to time, to take a step back to better anticipate the future

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

After taking 10 months to open our company and make our first chips, we asked ourselves thousands of questions, will the product please, will it sell, how will it be appreciated.
I’ll tell you about my first day as a salesperson.
We left with my sales representative on the roads around the factory.
We went to see a butcher first, he told us I love it, I want some for my customers, the customers came in at the same time as we were tasting with the merchant and we sold cans before the merchant had even bought them, we opened 8 resellers that day and above all 100% of our prospects became customers and resellers of the Litys brand. I had never seen that because in my former life as a merchant I did not have as much success.
Today we have in 6 months more than 60 resellers outside Florida and a little more than 50 resellers in Florida and the adventure is only just beginning.
We have good hopes of meeting distributors who understand our approach and distribute our products in hundreds of specialized businesses such as butchers; fishmongers, wine stores, delicatessens ……..

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lityschips.com
• Instagram: @lityschips
• Facebook: lityschips
• Other: tik tok

Image Credits

image from Dubarry Rénald