COUTURE: Did you found the company?

Anne Marie Montagne: Yes, I founded the company in February 2016. Montagne Custom Packaging began as a partnership between myself and Quality International, which also owns another jewelry packaging manufacturer, Noble Gift Packaging.  We each focus on different customer segments – at Montagne we specialize in packaging for high-end jewelry manufacturers and retailers. Operationally it made sense to partner with a larger company – I was able to gain access to warehouses in the USA, China, England, and Canada, and offer my clients lower shipping rates, a benefit of our consolidated shipping programs.

COUTURE: Why packaging?

AMM: When I graduated from Tulane University in 1995, I was looking for a job that afforded me the opportunity to use my international business degree but stay in the New Orleans area. I found a job in New Orleans assisting the production manager for a company to help bring in raw materials from around the world to their factories in China and the U.S. For the first couple of years, I worked as an assistant to the production manager, learning the business and how things were made.

Then, in the fall of 1997, we received word that one of our containers with packaging for Cristian Dior had gone overboard in a typhoon. I had to call the President of Christian Dior USA to explain he would not be getting his packaging program that Holiday Season, and to reassure him that we were going to fix the problem for him by making items domestically. Following our conversation, he called my boss and said I should be in sales as I had just convinced him he was going to be fine with no packaging. From this point, I started working in packaging sales – designing and developing new packaging programs for our clients. I was able to bring on several high-end jewelry brands, including David Yurman, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue. One of my favorite memories is hosting David Yurman in New Orleans, taking him out to dinner, then giving him a tour of our factory and the city.

COUTURE: More specifically, why packaging for high-end jewelry? What’s the appeal?

AMM: I’ve always appreciated and admired fine packaging, even when I was a very young child! I remember loving the packaging of Yves Saint Laurent, where my father used to buy my stepmother gifts when I was younger. They had a gorgeous red floral poppy print they used on some of their gift boxes one Holiday Season. I also loved the boxes of Tiffany, Bailey, Banks & Biddle, Cartier, and H. Stern for the gifts that my dad would occasionally bring home. It was always such a treat to unveil each item, well before “unboxing” became a thing.

I simply love jewelry, so working with jewelers and luxury brands has been especially rewarding. Jewelry embodies wearable art that has sentimental value and emotion tied to it, there are very few things in the world like this. I love the creative process of developing a program that truly reflects high-end luxury brands – there is always a new project, a new challenge. I think often about how the person receiving the jewelry is going to feel about the brand after opening our product. I want to help my clients achieve their goals of expressing the quality of what is contained inside, while also conveying an emotional feeling about the brand in general.

COUTURE: Can you give us a rundown of the process of working with you to create bespoke packaging?

AMM: If possible, I always like to meet with my clients in person to gain inspiration from their jewelry line and their existing branding. Understanding the brand goals and market position is key to knowing the types of programs that will work best for them. It also helps inform how I can offer consolidation and cost savings while updating a look. I will bring samples of other clients’ programs and raw materials to choose from to help the customer conceive of a new program. If we can’t meet in person, then we will set up video calls instead to start the process. I like to make sure I understand what brand elements a client loves and wants to continue to promote while understanding their particular business challenges.

After this initial meeting to develop ideas, we make custom samples. Because packaging for these brands is so important, we want to make sure they are 100% satisfied with the sample before we move on to production. If it is a new concept or program, we will sometimes go through multiple revisions to get the concept right. This is never a concern for us; however, it does take time.

After we have a final concept, we will move forward with pre-production samples. These are sent for final sign-off or approval. When they are approved, our clients place the order, and they are manufactured at one of our factories. We have long-standing and highly integrated relationships with our factories, which helps us ensure the quality and consistency of our products.

COUTURE: Can you elaborate on your sustainable offerings?

AMM: We have been using recycled plastic pellets in our wrapped plastic shell molds for decades, but the challenge has been to produce packaging exteriors that are as sustainable as its inner shell walls. I am proud to say that we have solved this problem, and now offer sustainable paper and fabric exterior options for our packaging programs. We have excellent raw material manufacturers in our industry, and I have loved partnering with producers who are committed to providing exciting sustainable options and helping them build market demand. While we strive for our products to be sentimental keepsakes, not all items fit this description, so we are thrilled to now offer products that can be recycled or made completely from recycled materials.

I’d like to call out Winter & Co, a raw goods provider. They’ve been an excellent partner to me over the past several years – developing new sustainable alternatives to coated papers, recycled fabrics, and the like while keeping pricing reasonable.

COUTURE: Is there a noticeable increase in demand for sustainable choices?

AMM: Yes! We have seen a dramatic increase in this request over this past year. Our clients are global brand leaders and are rightly concerned that they meet their customers’ calls for more sustainable products when they are available. I always make sure to show clients now the sustainable versions of what they are looking for, and I like to think we have a small part in their shift to put more sustainable products on retailers’ shelves. Of course, not all of our products end up using sustainable raw materials, but demand for sustainability has definitely increased, and we are continuing to offer solutions that can meet this demand.

COUTURE: What are some of the innovations you’ve introduced over the years?

AMM: One of our claims to fame is our multipurpose programs. One issue a lot of jewelry clients have is how to package the wide variety of products they sell in fewer boxes. We help solve this problem by innovating inserts that work across a wide variety of product types. Logistically, it is much easier for our clients to stock a single box that supports multiple products. They don’t have to predict what they will sell when and can gain cost efficiencies by ordering larger quantities of a single item, while also saving precious storage space.

COUTURE: Can you tell us about one of your favorite past projects?

AMM: Oh, that’s so hard! I hate to pick just one, as I love all of our clients!! Let’s see…I loved helping Saks transition to their Black & White program that they still use today. More recently, I was proud to help Emily P. Wheeler develop a fully sustainable packaging program in the most lovely combination of pastel colors. I really enjoyed working with Stavros and his wonderful team at Kabana to develop new packaging and displays for their incredible new branding. The new gray soft suede pouches we are making for Walter’s Faith are just lovely. It’s really too hard to just pick one! And that is not even considering our fantastic retailers we work with as well.

COUTURE: What are the benefits of having multiple factories across the globe?

AMM: We have developed long-standing partnerships with factories in China, Thailand, Korea, France, and of course the USA. Each region has its specialty in what it can make so we get the quality we need while still being able to offer good pricing. During the past few years as supply chain issues hampered many companies, our global footprint of factories ensured that we could still deliver products in a timely manner.  In 2023, we plan to develop factories in Columbia which will give us more capabilities for manufacturing in the western hemisphere. This will be a priority for me in the coming year.

COUTURE: You are a female-led company, how does that give you the edge?

AMM: I think our Montagne team is particularly a great group of women. We get stuff done! We do our best to listen and we are able to respond to our clients’ concerns. I’m not sure that being women-led has resulted in more business per se, but I do think the team of women we have is a powerful group. While there may be some brands who are genuinely focused on supporting women and minority-led businesses, I’m confident that it is our reputation, the quality of our products, and the affordability of our solutions that ultimately lead our customers to choose us as their packaging partner.