Bernard Lemaire is no more. One of the co-founders of Cascades, recognized for his commitment to sustainable development and for his then innovative management borrowing from participatory management, died at the age of 87. Company management said it learned the news on Wednesday. The cause of his death has not been communicated.
The Cascades team is mourning an entrepreneur with exceptional accomplishments, said Cascades President and CEO Mario Plourde during a conference call to discuss the company’s quarterly results. “Even though Bernard retired several years ago, he remains the heart and soul of the company and he has never stopped inspiring us. »
Bernard Lemaire is described by Cascades as having been a visionary, generous and charismatic man, who convinced countless people to help make the company a leader in the recovery and manufacturing of packaging and packaging solutions. sustainable hygiene.
Prime Minister François Legault paid tribute to Mr. Lemaire, calling him a “great entrepreneur” and a “visionary.” “Bernard Lemaire was one of the symbols of Quebec’s emergence internationally in the business world. » The Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, says he has good memories of the times he worked with the entrepreneur. “I had the chance to work with him and I can confirm that he stood out through his human management, close to people and his entrepreneurial spirit. »
Sustainable development
Bernard Lemaire was born in Drummondville in 1936. In 1960, he joined the family scrap recovery business, Drummond Pulp and Fiber. A civil engineering student, he left McGill University in the 1960s to work with his father in Drummondville. Under the leadership of the eldest of the family – he was 27 years old at the time – the Lemaires founded Cascades in 1964 to restart an old factory in Kingsey Falls with the aim of manufacturing paper. from recycled fibers. It was said of Bernard Lemaire that he was ahead of his time by founding a company on the principle of sustainable development even before the expression was created. He succeeded in his challenge and demonstrated that ecology could rhyme with economy, and in a profitable way.
These young French-speaking entrepreneurs then dared to make a breakthrough in an industry, that of pulp and paper, largely controlled by a rich and English-speaking industrial establishment. As a teenager, a drain cleaner in the family business, he did not see waste, but rather valuable materials to be recovered, he liked to say. “We were collecting all kinds of things and we decided to buy a paper mill in Kingsey Falls,” he summarized in an interview with Duty. As for the growth of the company in its early days, “we bought factories in difficulty, used equipment, we repaired them, then we made money from that. »
In 1982, Cascades took a decisive turn by becoming a public company and carrying out its first public issue of shares. The first shares began trading in January 1983. The company then became the first to use the Stock Savings Plan established by Jacques Parizeau, then Minister of Finance. Cascades then had a turnover of 32 million. In 1964, it had only about ten employees and a turnover of $300,000. Today, the company generates revenues of more than 4.5 billion and relies on a workforce of around 10,000 employees.
From 1985, geographical diversification occurred in Europe and the United States. In 1992, two major acquisitions took place: Rolland and Les Industries Paperboard International. Then, that of Papiers Perkins in 1995.
Innovative management
But in addition to the spectacular growth of what has become one of the great flagships of the Quebec economy, Bernard Lemaire’s commitment to his employees was his trademark, even his great contribution to the advancement of management. Its participatory management model was then only used by a handful of companies around the world. The management style chosen was intended to be friendly, focused on the autonomy of the management teams. In his eyes, growth can only be built with employees. “The best investment we can make is in employees. »
In a biography signed by Christian Bellavance published by Quebec America in April 2019, Bernard Lemaire was presented as a builder and a leading figure of Quebec Inc. A title included in The duty which was meant to be well deserved. It is clear from the outset that its management philosophy aimed at emphasizing increased employee participation and empowerment, as well as profit sharing, was at the forefront of its commitment. “It’s about making it THEIR factory,” he summed up.
It was in 1967 that Papier Cascades began to generate profits. Aware of the help given to them by the employees, nicknamed the Stuntmen, the Lemaire brothers then established a profit-sharing program, we read on Wikipedia. We can also imagine that within the framework of such a philosophy, the company could also attach a lot of importance to training.
Described as a serial entrepreneur, Bernard Lemaire first led the rescue of the old Kingsey Falls paper mill, and the village at the same time. From an expanding rescue, Cascades ended up participating in the creation of 150 different companies, summarizes a text from The Press. He has also suffered failures, such as the failed relaunch of the ITT pasta factory in Port-Cartier in 1991.
Announcing his retirement in 1992, Bernard Lemaire then led the development of Cascades for almost three decades before passing the baton to Laurent, then to Alain. He will then oversee the growth of the energy sector, under the leadership of Boralex following a reverse takeover orchestrated in 1995 by the Energy division of Cascades. Having built two giants of Quebec Inc., Cascades and Boralex, from nothing, remains his main source of pride, he declared during an interview with The Press.
On the political scene, Mr. Lemaire had at a certain moment taken sides for the sovereignty of Quebec, then recognized that there was perhaps a solution to this question if English Canada agreed to recognize a certain special status for Quebec.
Bernard Lemaire was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 1988. In 2002, the distinction of Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor was granted to him by the President of France.
The mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, highlighted the contribution of the founder of Cascades to the green economy. Remember that recycling is an integral part of the company’s strategy. “Bernard Lemaire saw, before many, the full potential of the green economy,” she emphasized on X (formerly Twitter).
With The Canadian Press