SME Universe | Bellon Awnings unfold… over five generations

Les Auvents Bellon is expanding by expanding its production facilities to meet the explosion in residential demand since the pandemic. Bellon Awnings are also deployed over five generations.

Marc Tison
The Press

The current president and owner, Carole Bellon, great-granddaughter of the founder, is gradually handing over the crank to her son Pierre H. Trudeau.

Groupe Bellon Prestige presents itself as the most important designer and manufacturer of custom-made awnings and winter shelters in Quebec.

Amazing story that this company has. It was founded in Montreal in 1895 by Joseph Kobosne dit Bellon, a Czech from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Realizing the need for shelters for merchants’ stalls, he opened a workshop for making retractable awnings, to which he soon added the covering of cart seats. Over time and the family, the company has manufactured metal structures for lampshades – “I never really understood that”, launches Carole Bellon –, tents for families of 12 children – “ I call them army tents” – awnings and aluminum storm doors… She undertook the making of flags, banners and other oriflammes that the flags for the visit of King George hoisted to new peaks.

Carole Bellon’s grandfather even launched the manufacture of small trailer tents, then letting himself be drawn into the field of outdoor equipment. “My father hated sports,” she says. When he took over all that, he sold it all. »

The company then refocused on its primary mission.

Carole Bellon took over in 1995, when her father was 63 years old. Under his leadership, the company acquired a series of competitors large and small. “We are still in the awning, but we could say that we are more in protection of all kinds: sun, rain, winter…”, she describes.

The company has expanded its catalog with made-to-measure winter shelters and aluminum garden sheds. “And we still make tents! »

Succession

Having herself reached 65, Carole Bellon has announced her departure for 2023. “The next generation is here,” she says, in the person of her son Pierre H. Trudeau, member of the fifth generation and vice-president of the Group. Bellon Prestige. After working outside the company, he offered to come and help his mother. He took the helm of one of the subsidiaries, Canevas St-Antoine, then joined it at the head office in 2021.

The pandemic had by then upended the market, lifting the sail of the commercial sector, but tripling the extent of residential demand.

“In the residential sector, the products are often almost as big as those in the shops,” he observes. These are big projects, big terraces. »

He launched the implementation of new production management software, had the first numerically controlled cutting table installed at the Auvents Bellon plant, and increased the production area by 30%.

“We did all of that during the pandemic,” he said. We had to move on the investment side to meet demand. »

Turnover increased by 30% in 2021. With orders doubled from the previous year, 2022 promises to be a record summer.

Groupe Bellon Prestige has some 70 employees, including some 40 at the Hochelaga Street plant. The company manufactures approximately 3,500 products per year.

“Quietly, it is Pierre who is beginning to manage all the files quite a bit,” says Carole Bellon.

His daughter Karoline manages Le Balconier boutique from Europe, another acquisition.

“Whether my grandfather took over from my great-grandfather, my father took over from my father, I took over from my father, we were lucky because there was always no only one person who was interested. The transfer was always done in harmony. It will be exactly the same with Peter. »

The president of Auvents Bellon will not overshadow her son.

Maxi-Métal fire trucks acquired by Oshkosh

There will probably be no funeral directors. Because it is by giving the assurance that local jobs would be preserved that the American manufacturer of specialized vehicles Oshkosh Corporation announced the acquisition of the Quebec manufacturer of pumpers and fire trucks Maxi-Métal. The Saint-Georges company founded in 1983 has 86 employees and continues to hire. In addition to its personnel, Maxi-Métal will retain its name, facilities and trademarks. The Beauceron company will be part of Oshkosh’s Fire and Emergency vehicle subsidiary. Oshkosh Corporation, which employs approximately 15,000 people worldwide, distributes its products in 150 countries. Its relationship with Maxi-Métal began in 2015, when its fire vehicle subsidiary Pierce Manufacturing signed an agreement with the Quebec manufacturer for the construction of fire trucks in collaboration. The first fruit had appeared the following year, in the form of the MAXI Saber model.

L’Orpailleur swallows Free Union

The Vignoble de l’Orpailleur has grabbed hold of Union libre, which no longer seems to justify its name. As he turns 40^e anniversary, this pioneer of Quebec viticulture announced the acquisition of the Union libre vineyard and orchard, also located in Dunham. L’Orpailleur, whose name evokes more the search for gold flakes in the river than the harvest of grapes, thus adds a terroir which, although close, is very different from its own. Union libre, whose corporate name alludes to its cider and wine duality, has 31,000 vines and four employees. L’Orpailleur has 12 permanent employees and 162,000 vines. The Vignoble de l’Orpailleur is also highlighting its 40-year-old status by launching a book on its history and a sparkling rosé wine to accompany its reading.

The source of inspiration…

A small Fallingwater-en-Québec, spa version… The architects of the third phase of La Source Bains Nordiques, in Rawdon, probably did not want to compete with the work of the great Frank Lloyd Wright, but we cannot be sure. to prevent seeing a common desire there, that of marrying the cliff, the waterfalls and the quality materials. This work is the work of the renowned Atelier Pierre Thibault, with the collaboration of the architect Valérie Ouellette for the realization. Carved into the mountainside, this third phase of construction, which juxtaposes concrete, wood, granite and steel, includes a new reception, new changing rooms, and an aerial spiral staircase. The attention paid to architecture and its harmonious integration into the landscape has been at the heart of the company’s vision since its foundation in 2007. “La Source is a project born of a love for nature , relaxation and beauty”, in the words of Patrice Lalancette, co-founder and general manager of La Source Bains Nordiques.

250,000

$250,000 to spin the wheel. This is the sum invested by HLC, a Lévis company specializing in the distribution of parts and accessories for cyclists, to accelerate the manufacture of bicycle wheels in its Wheel Shop workshop, one of the few facilities of its kind in North America. North.