SME Universe | Zenit rolls on the board

It was on a skateboard made by the Montreal company Zenit that the Frenchwoman Noémie Miljevic obtained a third place in the world dance and free style championships on longboard (long board), held in April in the Netherlands.

Marc Tison
The Press

This gratifying performance highlights Zenit’s equally astonishing journey since it was founded by Philippe Berthelet some ten years ago.

Its high performance, low wheeled longboards are sold in Europe, Asia, North and South America.

“Last year, we sold them in fifty countries,” says Philippe Berthelet. We have a big demand in Singapore, South Korea, Japan. »

Transactions are made primarily from the Zenit website, but also through local distributors.

“I even have a distributor in China,” he says, emphasizing the uniqueness of this reverse logistics circuit.

Because while a large proportion of its competitors have their boards made in Asia, Zenit makes its own by hand in its workshop on rue Dandurand.

Handyman

Himself a fan of downhill longboarding, he first built a car that met his quality criteria – aesthetic sobriety, but uncompromising efficiency – and then responded to the request of his fellow snowboarders.

His studies in business administration and international trade in no way predisposed him to work on a plank. The versatility he discovered was his lifeline. “To make the boards, I really designed the machines myself,” he says. I even designed a CNC [machine-outil à commande numérique]. I made all the presses. I built my website. I learned to take photos, videos. I had to learn all that to be able to build the brand. »

This brand has quietly made a good reputation. “What comes up most often is the quality of our products, the design. »

Its boards are laminated with Canadian maple veneers, whose growth in cold climates gives it recognized durability.

Delicately curved, hollowed out with subtle depressions, reinforced if necessary with fiberglass or carbon, the models are shaped according to the discipline for which they are intended – downhill, freestyle, dance, long-distance course…

“The other characteristic is the visual aspect of the board, its more minimalist side, he underlines. More emphasis is placed on the shape of the board than the drawing as such. »

Local manufacturing is also one of the brand’s attractions for enthusiasts.

“We make the boards ourselves,” he says. I would say 80% of brands will outsource manufacturing. »

The company shows as much agility in designing its boards as its employees in testing them.

He gives the example of a new model that Zenit launched this spring and for which enthusiastic enthusiasts suggested some adjustments.

“We managed to design and test the board and put it on the market in a month,” he says.

“It’s something you don’t see anywhere else. It would have taken any other brand a year. »

Uphill

Zenit’s boards are on an upward slope. Thanks in part to a pandemic that has revived outdoor activities, the company has quintupled its turnover over the past three years. It now has eight employees.

This success was achieved without advertising, on the sole faith of the quality of the product, essentially through word-of-mouth and on-screen keyboards on social networks, without Philippe Berthelet having to pay any influencer. .

“My advertising budget must be below 3% of my turnover,” he says.

About twenty athletes like Noémie Miljevic use her boards, all over the planet longboard.

The entrepreneur began designing his own urethane casters, which he had manufactured in Asia to his specifications. He now wants to tackle axle blocks, in the laudable but uncertain hope of having them manufactured in Quebec.

And finally, “there is also the question of longboards electricity, which are of great interest to me”.

Which gives the opportunity to finally place this one: still a lot of work to do.

One more step for Maguire Shoes

Owners of Maguire Shoes – the company, not the shoes – will walk a little lighter. Founded in 2016 by sisters Myriam and Romy Belzile-Maguire, the Montreal-based company is one of ten winners of Visa Canada’s She’s Next female entrepreneurship program. This appointment provides them with $10,000 and one-year support with the IFundWomen network of mentors and women-led businesses. Maguire Shoes was the only Quebec company among the winners of the third edition of this program. Maguire Shoes specializes in the manufacture and sale of shoes and accessories for women. Designed in Montreal, these items are produced by small European family manufacturers – a model usually made in Canada has not been confirmed for the next season. “The She’s Next award really comes at a pivotal time in our business,” Romy Belzile-Maguire said by email. “We will be opening our very first boutique in New York in one month, which will be our gateway to the American market and our first international point of sale. This scholarship will contribute directly to this. The 17-employee company already has a store in Montreal and another in Toronto.

Artist in Residence Distillery to Expand in Ontario

There will be a toast. The Artist in Residence distillery, located in Gatineau, has announced plans to build a second distillery in the neighboring province – a way to support the community, according to its president, Pierre Mantha. The company has launched a call for projects for what will constitute a real complex of 160,000 sq.². Ultimately, it should bring together eight buildings, including the distillery itself, a warehouse, a bottling plant and a shop attached to a restaurant. Founded in 2016 by Pierre Mantha and his brother Michel, the Artist in Residence distillery notably produces gins, vodkas and various liqueurs. The new Hawkesbury distillery will be dedicated to whisky. The construction should be finished in the summer of 2023. And this is only a first step. The entrepreneur has set himself the ambitious goal of opening a new distillery every three years. “What we would like is to share the know-how from here, by helping the regions in which we go”, argues Pierre Mantha, according to the press release. “We want to collaborate with different people, create jobs, get involved in communities. In short, to distill its benefits.

Seven employees take over Groupe D Resto

They didn’t swallow it all, but they took a big bite. Groupe D Resto, which owns 24 franchised and independent restaurants in Quebec, was bought out by seven of its long-time employees, who were invited to acquire a stake in the shareholding of the company where they had worked for several years. The founder, J Daniel Tremblay, remains controlling shareholder. The share buyback will be scalable, and further blocks of shares will be made available to new and existing shareholders, one of the buyers said. J Daniel Tremblay, whose daughter Gabrielle is part of the group of buyers, will continue to play a role in the major strategic orientations. The new president of Groupe D Resto, Charles A. Gagnon, is delighted to be able to count on “the experience and knowledge of Mr. Tremblay”. This did not prevent the new shareholders from redefining the group’s vision, mission and values, “by emphasizing the happiness of our customers and our employees”, in the words of the senior vice-president, Alexandre Paradise, under the theme Nourishing Happiness [une assiette à la fois]. The first plate to garnish is that of employment. The new shareholders have concocted a new approach: it is the group that offers its CV to the candidates, pushing the game to the point of asking them to interview the company. Groupe D Resto owns Mikes, Scores, La Belle et la Bœuf and Bâton Rouge restaurants, mainly in central and eastern Quebec.

$118,000

In 2021, 9 out of 10 Canadian SMEs have invested in technology. The average investment was around $118,000. But according to the BDC study that reveals these figures, only 1 in 20 companies use digital technologies effectively.