By Cynthia Labonté
Nearly forty years after its founding, BARIL has established itself as a North American leader in the design and manufacture of high-end residential faucets, thanks to passionate teams, bold collaborations and a strong environmental conscience. Second-generation entrepreneur Marie-Eve Baril is at the helm, continuing the creative vision and spirit of well-being that are the company’s hallmarks.
1. To follow up on your interview in the Journal de Montréal, you say that your “ultimate big dream“ is to be the most referred faucet brand in the world.” How does this positioning define the way you lead, decide and measure success?
Being the most referenced brand in the world isn’t a question of volume, it’s a question of trust — the trust of industry experts.
This dream influences every decision we make. I always ask myself the same question: does this enhance our desirability and credibility with our various ambassadors? They consist of: 1 – designers and architects, 2 – plumbing installers.
If the answer is no, even if it’s profitable in the short term, it’s not the right decision.
I measure success not only by sales, but also by:
- the quality of our relationships with our customers, ambassadors, designers and plumbing installers
- the recommendation rate, BARIL’s NPS
- the consistency and relevance of the customer experience
- the pride of our in-house teams in our products and our positioning
To be the most widely referred water brand is to become a matter of course, a benchmark. And the perfect combination of coherence, quality and emotion is what makes that possible.
2. You aim to become the ”Cadillac” of faucets for designers and architects. How do you create an internal culture that promotes excellence in a context of accelerated growth?
We’re here to bring beauty to people’s homes, but beyond that, we deliver value-added products. Our slogan is ‘Style x Function’: with this in mind, excellence and continuous improvement are deeply rooted in our DNA.
In a context of rapid growth, the temptation may be to optimize for speed and volume. We make a conscious choice to optimize the quality of our products and services, because we’re in it for the long haul.
This implies:
- investing in ongoing training not only for our employees, but also for our retailers, plumbers and designers
- recruiting talent aligned with the company’s high-end positioning
- accepting to say no to certain opportunities that are not a perfect fit
- protecting our manufacturing standards, our processes, to deliver the highest quality.
Internally, we value quality in everything: doing things right the first time. Every employee must feel that he or she contributes to an exceptional brand.
3. From the field to the presidency: You started out in business development and sales before being appointed president (2010). What has this experience “at the front” shaped in your leadership style?
The field gave me my vision: quality products to avoid long-term problems and make it easier for stakeholders to work with us. These two principles guide our daily decisions. I’ve also learned that the customer’s perception is the only truth that counts: they need to see our added value.
When you’re in business development, you hear the objections, you understand the irritants, you see what makes people tick. This experience has brought me very close to the market and very attentive to feedback from the field.
Today, I lead with a strategic vision, but always anchored in the reality on the ground. I believe deeply in empowerment: I trust, but I demand excellence. Being the best of the best is my guiding principle!
4. With 80 employees, two plants in Trois-Rivières and a design studio in Montreal, what are the two or three game-changing executive roles (or key positions) to support your global ambition?
At this stage of our growth, certain roles become structuring:
- A strong leader in operations and supply chain, to ensure scalability without compromising on quality.
- A brand and experience leader, to solidify our high-end positioning and ensure international consistency.
- A strategic leader for business development, able to build an influential network with key partners.
The right leaders, in the right chairs, can accelerate our trajectory by several years. A-players need to feel their meaningful contribution and have a concrete impact on our company’s history. That’s the space I give them.
5. If you’re recruiting a leader tomorrow, what human qualities and skills are you looking for so that he/she protects the high-end positioning, not the high-volume one?
I first recruit a posture.
I’m looking for leaders who:
- understand the value of the long-term and the importance of customers and employees
- refuse easy compromise and work hard to make it simple and effective.
- are rigorous and committed to continuous improvement
- have strong emotional intelligence
At the top end of the market, discipline is more important than aggressiveness. We’re not looking for volume managers, but reputation builders.
6. You continue to grow in the U.S. despite the trade war and tariff-related price hikes. What was your most difficult trade-off: price, margins, distribution or brand promise?
We chose to protect the brand.
Raising prices is never easy. But reducing quality, compressing service or diluting our positioning would have been much riskier in the long term.
Our growth in the United States, with over 100 points of sale in key states, shows that our assertive positioning and distinctive product style attract the right partners.
7. You say: ‘We have something unique … and they don’t have that. ’ How do you translate this uniqueness into strategy?
Our raison d’être is to bring beauty to people’s homes. There is in our DNA a solid aesthetic foundation and a commitment to high quality — not many players excel at both aspects of the product.
What’s more, our uniqueness is based on a combination of:
- our manufacturing and … family DNA
- our ability to adapt to market needs and the agility of an SME
- our proximity to our customers, a powerful field sales force
- our customization offer
We don’t just sell a product. We offer collaboration, a long-term partnership.
Our strategy is clear: bring beauty into people’s lives! How? By excelling in product and customer relations. Period.
8. You mentioned that expansion into Europe could be envisaged within the next ten years. What conditions must be met before you can take this step?
Before entering Europe, several conditions must be met. It is not a priority in the short or medium term, but when we’re ready, we’ll have to:
- understand the market
- ensure compliance with local standards
- building brand awareness with a start-up vision
- network of strong distribution partners
- establish a strategic local presence.
Right now, we’re working to solidify our brand in North America, standardize our processes and structure our growth. Europe will not be an opportunistic move, but a prepared strategic one.
9. The company has gone from importing to manufacturing its own parts and designs. How has this shift influenced your innovation culture?
This shift has profoundly transformed our culture.
When European fittings didn’t meet North American standards, we could have looked for a compromise. We chose to develop our own solutions.
This has anchored within us:
- an engineering mentality
- strategic autonomy
- a problem-solving culture
Today, this independence is a major competitive advantage.
10. When you say “change the world”, what’s your personal definition and what’s the most important decision that makes you feel you’re contributing to it?
For me, changing the world doesn’t mean conquering every market.
It’s proving that a Quebec company can become a North American benchmark by remaining true to its know-how and values.
The most important decision that makes me feel I’m contributing is, above all, to choose quality — again and again —, even when the market is pushing for speed and volume, and to remain true to my parents’ vision.
Changing the world, in my own way, means offering beautiful, quality products that bring well-being to our users.
I love building a brand, beautiful and functional, that people are proud of both internally and externally.
