Loulou Lollipop, a Vancouver-based baby lifestyle brand known for its safe, stylish, and functional products, is marking 10 years in business with plans to expand internationally and explore physical retail.
Co-founded by Eleanor Lee and Angel Kho in 2015, the idea for the company began with a personal need.
“I was a new mom and then I was looking for a teething necklace at that time,” said Lee. “I saw a gap in the market and there was nothing like that in the Canadian market that I liked—more safe and stylishly designed products that would reflect my style and my value. So I thought that could be something other moms are looking for.”’
The company launched with one product—a teething necklace—driven by a deep belief in building “something meaningful and different,” said Lee. “At that time, there was no business plan, no investor.”
Kho, who joined from the start, said she was intrigued by the concept. “When Eleanor shared the idea with me, I had not heard of teething necklaces. My kids were a little bit older, they were out of the teething phase already, and it was something that I thought was quite intriguing and interesting,” said Kho. “My kids grew up with those plastic gel-filled teething toys that I knew at that time were not very safe. I remember one time, as I was checking out at the grocery store, I had to keep my girl busy and using a car key—I only had a car key in hand—I gave her a car key. And as I was paying and turned around, I saw her putting the car key in her mouth. It was just shocking. I was like, oh dear, what have I done? But she survived. She’s 18 now.”
Today, the company has grown far beyond necklaces, offering a range of products across several categories.
The company has been on an aggressive growth trend and in the past few months alone the company has:
- Participated in the ABC Kids Expo – North America’s largest baby and kids trade show
- Launched in Taiwan, with strong early traction in the Asian market
- Received a significant new order from Nordstrom
- Secured new distribution in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Amazon EU and TikTok Shop all launching this summer, with Vietnam later this year, massively expanding global reach
- Continued to grow their retail presence across Canada and the U.S., all while staying true to their roots as a founder-led, purpose-driven business.
This growth complements current retail partnerships like West Coast Kids, Clement and Indigo in Canada and Bloomingdales, Target, Macy’s and Gap online in the US. Also Loulou Lollipop has won numerous awards for their products in recent months, including The Bump Best of Baby Award, the Parents Best for Baby Award, The Everymom Registry Award, and the PureWow Happy Kid Award.
Loulou Lollipop is also a certified B Corp known for sustainable, design-forward essentials.
“(We have) the combination of sleepwear—so sleep bags, sleepers, swaddles—as well as a significant line of silicone tableware, so snack plates, cups, learning utensils, and then bath toys,” said James Connell, who recently joined the team as COO and CMO. “A number of different toys that sort of make bathtime more fun and enjoyable as well.”
The brand’s products are available through Loulou Lollipop’s own website, Amazon, and a wide range of retailers including West Coast Kids, Nordstrom, and Indigo Chapters.
“We also have recently started to expand internationally as well,” added Connell. “In the last few months, signed a distribution deal in Taiwan, as well as Latin America.”
Although Loulou Lollipop doesn’t currently operate physical stores, the founders see potential in having a retail presence.
“Yes, definitely,” said Kho. “We thought about it, and it’s more like in the horizon, I would say. We’re testing out with something small first, testing out with pop-up shops. And then at our headquarter in Richmond, we do have a very, I would say, a pretty great front space that we are going to turn into more like a retail experience this summer.”
Looking ahead, the company is focused on continued global expansion.
“I would say we’ll continue to expand internationally,” said Kho. “And also, we’ll definitely be looking at having more physical presence as well. Because we feel that a lot of our products—the pictures don’t do justice. Our products need to be seen and touched. And also having that interpersonal conversation with our customer—really understanding what they’re looking for, what they want from our products—it makes it very special.”
Operationally, the brand is also making supply chain shifts to better position itself amid global changes.
“That’s something that we’re currently working on,” said Connell, referring to a shift in production from China to Vietnam. “And have been prior to the announcement of tariffs.”
“Looking at diversification of our supply chain really helps mitigate challenges when it comes to potential tariffs, which we’re already seeing, as well as the fact that we’re starting to see costs rise with certain suppliers. So by looking at different suppliers globally, it allows us to not only maintain our commitment to sustainability and B Corp status, as well as get the best price for our customers and not be in a situation where we’re having to raise prices to adapt to new market changes or inflation.”
Asked whether U.S. tariffs have affected business strategy, Connell said the focus is on flexibility.
“It is such a moving target that what we say today, we may not necessarily believe tomorrow,” he said. “The U.S. market for us is important and will continue to be important. Nordstrom just placed a great new order.”
“That being said,” he added, “it’s equally as important to be in a new retailer in Taiwan or Spain or Mexico. So the more we can start to build a globally recognized brand that’s desirable around the world by families, the better off we’re going to be.”
Lee noted that the company is also seeing rising brand awareness at home.
“In the past, the U.S. market accounted for 80%. However, since COVID and the last few years with more marketing we are seeing an uptick of our brand in Canada. The Canadian market now accounts for 50%,” said Lee. “So in Canada, definitely we do see there’s a lot of room for growth. So we’ll continuously grow the brand in Canada and at the same time, just like James mentioned, we will continue to expand internationally to kind of de-risk and mitigate risk.”
Kho added: “There’s the old adage—don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Right? So having that diversification is absolutely crucial. And also there are a lot of people going to different countries—Spain is definitely one of the top travel destinations, Taiwan is coming up, and also like Japan. So, for our customers to see our products in international countries—it really creates that desire. It’s like, oh wow. And also, making us as a Canadian brand really proud as well.”
When asked about the brand’s name, Lee explained its evolution.
“We actually came up with Lollipop first. Lollipop is a candy kids love a lot. And our first product was a teething necklace—something kids put in their mouth. So that’s why we felt that Lollipop was very fitting,” she said. “However, with Lollipop, the name is quite generic and it doesn’t really resonate with parents. We liked French culture, with a French aesthetic, and maybe we could create a name that’s a bit more sophisticated.
“Lulu came to mind. There are a couple of reasons—at that time there was Lulu magazine in Canada, and also lululemon. In French, ‘Lulu’ is actually a fashion way of calling a little kid. So we thought, oh, that’s actually a great name because we are creating products for children. So it is like children and a lollipop—and that’s how we landed on the name.”
Kho added, “It rolls off the tongue. We tried ‘bonbon,’ like candy, but ‘Loulou Lollipop’ just kind of rolls.”
Connell said the brand’s evolution includes the recent launch of a new brand icon.“I think that’s also part of the reason why we’ve launched a new brand icon, Wolfie, in the last few months,” he said. “That’s also really related to the fact that with our move into more aggressive branding over the past few months to try to be more recognizable in the market, which is proving to be successful and driving more demand. The Wolfie icon is also a loose translation of ‘wolf’ from French. So it allows us to have our sleepy Wolfie on our product and help it be more recognizable to consumers, not only in North America but also globally.”
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