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Q. Is there a story behind the name?

A. Gibou is the name my father gave me when I was a child. When I was looking for a business name, it came out. Even if its sounds French, it does not mean anything in French.

Q. Who is your target customer?

A. Women ages 25 to 35 who are sensitive to a fair production and who also wish to have a beautiful look in winter, as well as summer.

Q. What more can you share about the unique program that sees the brand work with local retirees to create products?

A. Since the company started with myself doing the knitting, retired people in my family came to my aid. With the demand that was increasing from month to month in the first year, I was not able to do it on my own. The idea of hiring retirees was born of a need. Today, there are 15 retirees knitting from their homes, 12 months a year, and they are very motivated. It is important to me that they feel valued in the process and that it remains an activity that they do without pressure.

To start, we do a training with the retirees. Thereafter, we give them a formative video to make sure there’s a certain standardization of size while keeping the appearance of one of a kind product. We also always make sure that we adjust the pattern according to the knitting tension of the retirees.

Q. And what has been the feedback on this so far?

A. We are really differentiated by this concept. The comments we receive are always so positive! Even though it is not an easy concept to execute because it involves different operational challenges, the positive impact that occurs with each of these women is more valuable to us.