Supporting family businesses

Supporting family businesses (1 min 39 s)

Added on November 1, 2016

Description
M3Béton formed after the discovery of Ductal, a unique type of top quality concrete that's not affected by freezing and thawing, giving it a distinct competitive advantage in Quebec. Led by very determined co-owner Claudia Croteau, the family business is specialized in the production of urban concrete furniture. The company benefited from the CRÉAVENIR program to support its growth.

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Supporting family businesses (1 min 39 s)

Added on November 1, 2016 | Desjardins Group

Note: The information enclosed in brackets describes the visual and audio content of the video other than dialogue or narration.

[Text on the screen: Together, we support the growth of local entrepreneurs.]

[Background music]

[Shot of Montreal office towers, trees in a park and the name of the company: “m3béton, l’atelier du béton.” In the company’s offices, Guylain Croteau and Claudia Croteau are in conversation in front of documents on which Claudia is writing. Claudia addresses the camera.]

Claudia Croteau: m3béton, is a family business, because I have my brother who works with me on a daily basis, and our family is very involved.

[Text on the screen: Claudia Croteau Co-owner m3béton]

Claudia Croteau: I am fortunate to specialize in a material. So, of course, that makes me a concrete designer.

[Shot of a magnifying glass over a small piece of concrete and shot of small pieces of concrete in various colours on shelves of a showroom. Shot of Claudia’s office with contracts, work plans. Claudia is working at the computer.]

Claudia Croteau: It’s a very noble material, mineral…It’s a very tactile material. For designers, qualities like that, that characterize objects, are super important. I think that I have the best material to work with, no question about it.

[Shot of work tools on workshop shelves. Guylain walks across the workshop. He attaches a piece to a sandblaster. In the showroom, Claudia addresses the camera.

Claudia Croteau: At the beginning, we did custom work, especially for residential projects, with equipment that was getting bigger, with a team that was increasingly skilled. We needed a little money. We couldn’t get by with just our own money.

[Shot of Guylain wearing a safety mask sandblasting a piece of concrete. In the showroom, Claudia addresses the camera.]

Claudia Croteau: We eventually went to Desjardins to get the financing. It’s a new program called CRÉAVENIR, and they told me, it’s not even a loan, it’s a grant. A grant? That’s a gift.

[Shot of Guylain finishing sandblasting a piece of concrete, he inspects it with his fingers and then heads to another piece in the workshop. Shot of a lift truck and a piece of concrete held by straps and controlled by Guylain. In the showroom, Claudia addresses the camera.]

Claudia Croteau: It allowed us to hire the first person in the office so I could be free to do sales, so we could mass-produce pieces, not just single units. And that happened about 2012, when we began to work on the ping-pong table.

[Circular shot of a concrete ping-pong table in a municipal park. In the showroom, Claudia addresses the camera.]

Claudia Croteau: We call it our famous table because it’s how we really got our municipal line started. We wanted to make furniture that was…that was aesthetic, and we also wanted to make furniture that was functional, that would last a century.

[Shot of concrete sculptures in a green alley.]

Claudia Croteau: What sets us apart is perhaps this specialization in urban products.

[Guylain in the workshop smiles at the camera.]

[Text on the screen: Guylain Croteau Co-owner m3béton]

Claudia Croteau: Guylain says that we create antiquities of the future.

[We see Claudia and Guylain enter the workshop. In the showroom, Claudia addresses the camera.]

Claudia Croteau: I find this vision appealing. I really like Desjardins Group for its values, its cooperative values. That must be why we’re working with them more and more.

[Shot of the concrete ping-pong table in the park, with two red paddles and a ball.]

[Text on the screen: As a member, you make a difference. Thank you.]

[Image on the screen: Desjardins logo / Cooperating in building the future]