Desjardins Entrepreneur Award Winners

2011 Winners

Woman of Influence Award
Trans-Herbe - St-Bruno, Montérégie – Johanne Dion, owners Johanne Dion is well known in the field of gourmet and herbal teas. Her vast experience, perseverance and, most importantly, her good taste, led her to found Trans-Herbe in the early 1990s. Twenty years later, her 125 employees make over 600 varieties of teas and herbal teas that have captured 40% of the Québec market. A true visionary, she has successfully penetrated the European, Japanese and Mexican markets, which account for 25% of sales. Despite a business executive's busy schedule, Johanne Dion enthusiastically continues to personally invest in creating new flavours of teas and herbal teas to please consumer palates.
Business Leadership Award - Major Corporation, in partnership with Fasken Martineau
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cirque du Soleil - Montréal – Guy Laliberté Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté stands out for boldness and creativity as well as his commitment to the environment and access to drinking water through his foundation One Drop.
Agricultural Award, in partnership with Metro
Productions Maraîchères Mailhot - Saint-Alexis-de-Montcalm, Lanaudière Nearly all of the vegetables destined for quick-freezing in Québec-such as broccoli, cauliflower and green beans-are grown by Productions Maraîchères Mailhot. For more than a quarter century, supported by a network of 25 producers, this Saint-Alexis-de-Montcalm family farm in Lanaudière has cultivated and pre processed almost 15 million pounds of vegetables annually. In recent years, to deal with rising competition from California and Mexico, Productions Maraîchères Mailhot introduced new technologies that cut operating costs, enabling it to maintain its place in the market.
International Commerce Award, in partnership with Export Development Canada
AV&R Vision & Robotics - Montréal Between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of international activity for AV&R Vision & Robotics climbed from 50% to close to 90%. This 46-employee SME, a leader in the field of industrial automation, offers manufacturing and quality-control optimization solutions. Already well established in the North American market for many years, during the last economic recession, the company decided to explore new business horizons, venturing into such international markets as Europe and Asia.
Co-op Award, in partnership with Capital regional and cooperatif Desjardins
Collège des Hauts Sommets - Saint-Tite-des-Caps, Charlevoix Collège des Hauts Sommets is the only school in Québec run by a cooperative. This private high school in Saint-Tite-des-Caps provides instruction to 155 students, and is known in particular for welcoming students with learning difficulties. Remarkably, Collège des Hauts Sommets is one of the few schools in the province with a dropout rate of 0%. The reason? The personalized approach offered to nearly half of students, high enthusiasm and, above all, the unconditional commitment of the school's entire staff, especially since the founding of their cooperative.
Sustainable Development Award, in partnership with Bell
Auberge La Muse and Chez Bouquet - Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix Veritable pioneers in the field of rural accommodations in Charlevoix, Robert Arsenault and Évelyne Tremblay are the cheerful owners of two establishments well known in Baie Saint-Paul: Auberge La Muse and, their latest offshoot, Chez Bouquet, an eco-bistro. Resolutely forward-looking and environmentally aware, these two defenders of sustainable development did not hesitate to equip their businesses with special equipment to maximize use of renewable energy. In the same spirit, Robert and Évelyne support the development of their regional economy by sourcing over 85% of their business needs locally, for both products and the work of all manner of craftspeople.
Innovation & Productivity Award
Medium-sized business Groupe Laprise - Montmagny, Chaudière-Appalaches In record time, the Groupe Laprise in Montmagny achieved the feat of designing, building and delivering 250 shelters a week for victims of the Haiti earthquake in January 2010. To deal with the crisis, the company had to design needed production machinery, hire and train some 60 employees assigned to the project, and implement IT processes and systems to control production. Through this adventure, the Groupe Laprise gave new meaning to the term "innovation". Small business Laiterie Charlevoix - Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix In 2006, the Laiterie Charlevoix, which transforms two million litres of milk into cheese yearly, was having increasing difficulty disposing of its whey, the main by-product of making cheese. The Labbé family took up the gauntlet, developing a process to recover the energy present in whey and use it to replace oil for heating their facilities. Use of this European technology, which processes 80% of waste, coupled with an American plant-filtration technology, is a world first. It took three years of study and effort to get the required authorizations, but today these innovations make the Laiterie Charlevoix an industrial site with great tourism potential.
Young Entrepreneur Award, in partnership with the Secrétariat à la jeunesse
Eastern Québec Techéol - Sayabec, Bas-Saint-Laurent The fierce winds that blow through Baie-des-Sables give wings to Techéol, a business created in the wake of the boom in wind farms being built in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. Founded by Marc Poirier, the company specializes in the repair and maintenance of wind turbines. It launched operations in 2006 with five technicians and today employs 25 people. Powered by contracts from Québec, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia, Techéol has literally taken flight, while continuing to operate in a manner that shows consideration for its employees and customers and that respects the environment. Central Québec Services environnementaux Richelieu - Beloeil, Montérégie Services environnementaux Richelieu, managed by Renaud Lapierre, specializes in the collection, recovery and recycling of waste. Founded barely three years ago, the business has grown at a dizzying pace, expanding from 12 to over 100 employees. It collects 200,000 tonnes of fertilizing material to enrich agricultural lands, giving both the environment a needed boost and offering agricultural producers cumulative savings topping $1.5 million in synthetic fertilizers. Western Québec Biomomentum - Laval Biomomentum designs, develops, creates and markets sophisticated medical equipment for biomaterials and articular cartilage. Its banner products, Arthro-ST and Mach-1, are known and sought internationally. The business potential of this young company, founded in 2009 by Martin Garon, is huge: it is estimated that problems associated with bones and joints will increase by 124% over the next three decades. Ontario Momzelle - Toronto Distributed in over 150 North American and European boutiques, Momzelle nursing wear was perfectly designed to meet the needs of mothers who want to nurse their baby discreetly. Founded by Christine Poirier and her brother Vincent in 2008, Momzelle now has its own Toronto boutique, and boasts 3,000 Facebook friends and over 10,000 satisfied moms.
Business Ownership Transfer Award, in partnership with Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche
Comact Equipment - Saint-Georges, Beauce In 2005, after a number of years of austerity, Comact Equipment, then owned by institutional investors, was put up for sale. The Saint-Georges-based company (in the Beauce region), which specializes in sawmill equipment, was bought by five members of the management team with the help of Desjardins Venture Capital. The very first year, the company was returned to profitability, and it successfully weathered subsequent years, despite the worldwide financial storms that lashed the timber industry.