News from Direction
CNÉ
A dream become a reality
They dreamed about it. Six years later, the reality surpasses the imagination of the founders of Groupe APL. The Carrefour de la nouvelle économie (CNÉ) has just delivered its phase IV and is preparing a fifth phase. Spotlight on a business incubator where innovative businesses can thrive.
“ We work in a spirit of par tnership with our tenants,
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It takes a visionary to get this type of project off the ground. This vision of the future came to Jean-Louis Legault towards the end of the 1990s. The new economy was flourishing. The President of Daktronics Canada, which specializes in electronic advertising displays, wanted to place Les Moulins on the innovation map. He dreamed about a sophisticated complex that would become a centre of excellence where businesses active in the new technologies could pool their resources.
In 1999, he found in Jacques Peetroons the ideal real estate promoter to bring the project to fruition. Together they formed the Groupe APL (Groupe Amireault–Peetroons–Legault). While other Carrefours de la nouvelle économie tended to move into old industrial buildings, the two associates gambled on building something new.
“It was a risky adventure. The region respected this risk and assisted us,” remembers Mr. Legault, underscoring the dynamism of the CLDEM, which was the first to propose that Les Moulins acquire this kind of carrefour.
The gamble paid off: the project met with instant success. To the three buildings originally planned, they added a fourth phase in August 2005, for total investments of over $5 M. The CNÉ today is home to some fifteen businesses with more than 200 workers. The occupation rate is close to 100%.
Partners first and foremost
The key to this success? “Keeping the focus on our primary mission allowed us to work through the challenges,” relates Mr. Legault. Tolerating a certain level of risk, not giving up on start-ups in difficulty but helping them to ride out the bumps, these are the principles that guide CNÉ’s promoters.
“We work in a spirit of partnership with our tenants, not just as owners, by adapting our offer to the needs of the businesses.” Managing the growth and shrinkage of tenants requires some degree of flexibility. The promoter doesn’t hesitate, for example, to revise a lease to offer more or less space to a business. “We are committed to listening to the changing needs of tenants,” says Mr. Legault.
Emballages et logistique Brent
Enthusiastic about Les Moulins
Acier profilé SBB
At the heart of the steel hub
KWP
The art of limiting transportation
Planiform inc.
Winner on all fronts
Prestige Canada/Optique Phoenix
A modern optical laboratory
Excel-Pac
A motivating environment
Excel-Pac has established itself as a leader in the plastic industry, which has assumed an important position in the region over the past ten years.
[Read more]Entramatic
A favourable position
Entramatic, located in Mascouche, is the only automatic sliding door manufacturer in Canada. It has distinguished itself in the construction industry through innovation.
[Read more]Tergel
A well-developed regional spirit
Tergel, the gelatine manufacturer, was the source of one of the largest investments of recent years in Terrebonne’s industrial park.
[Read more]ACCS Le Groupe
Always on the go
Established in the region for 15 years, this SME specializing in building intelligence is one of the beacons of Terrebonne’s new economy. The secret of its success: finding the right support at the right time.
[Read more]ACT Consultants
Growing up in the region
Eric Taillon was looking for more office space to support the growth of his company. Finally, this founding entrepreneur from the offices of ACT Consultants actuaries became co-owner of a 150,000 sq. ft. building lot in the heart of Terrebonne.
[Read more]CT ZOOM
A new look at infrastructures
In 1997, Alain Lortie, then unemployed, signed up for a regional program offered by the Community Futures and Development Corporation (CFDC). His profile as an entrepreneur was immediately recognized.
[Read more]GMR Safety
Innovate, improve, commercialize
Reviewing a company’s production processes from top to bottom can result in appreciable gains. GMR Safety, a designer of industrial safety systems, improved its productivity by 40% by reviewing all its operations, from administration to corporate image.
[Read more]NITA Equipment
Refocusing business strategy
When Normand Lord purchased Nita Equipment, a printing equipment firm, in 2002, he faced a sizeable challenge. He had to turn around the financial situation and make the product line more competitive.
[Read more]Plasticase
Successful cases
In 2003, Plasticase faced a major challenge: to combine its two plants located one hundred kilometres apart, one in Berthierville, the other in Montréal. “Terrebonne was halfway between the two. It was a good solution for our employees,” declares Jean-Pierre Grenier, President of the firm.
[Read more]A retiree:
in action
For Jean-Marc Brien, retirement did not end his passion for business. The former owner of a large hardware store in Mascouche continues to contribute to the economic growth of the region by helping young entrepreneurs spread their wings and by investing in projects he believes in.
[Read more]Atmosphere
A question of atmosphere
How about inviting your clients to play a game of golf on the roof of your factory? That’s what Frank Rose is planning to do this spring. The president of Atmosphère, a ventilation systems manufacturer in
Terrebonne, likes to boast that he has the biggest private green roof in North America.
The recycling centre in Terrebonne
A technological showcase for recycling
The recycling centre in Terrebonne could soon become the first LEED building in the MRC des Moulins. The plant built in 2008 by Tricentris is meant to be a technological and environmental showcase, as well as a source of inspiration for other companies.
[Read more]Industries Mailhot
Designing more
Since January 2008, Industries Mailhot has embarked on a vast program of sustainable development. One of its elements: eco-design, a growing trend among industrial equipment manufacturers.
[Read more]Saramac
Concrete: King of sustainable materials
Ecological and versatile, precast concrete tops the list of sustainable materials. Saramac, one of Québec’s principal manufacturers of concrete architectural panels, is taking part in this green shift. And it began by cleaning up its own backyard.
[Read more]Quartier général de la Sûreté du Québec
The SQ goes green
The construction of the new Sûreté du Québec Headquarters is set to start in Mascouche. This 25 million dollar environmentally oriented project will be built in a new growth sector, close to the new viaduct and the future commuter train station, at the intersection of highways
25 and 640.
Groupe Montoni
More eco-responsible industrial buildings
Groupe Montoni is a pioneer in environmentally friendly industrial building, a sector in which green construction is in the early stages.
[Read more]Timber Block
The log cabin reinvented
Innovation sometimes appears where it’s least expected. What could be more traditional than the log cabin? Timber Block took the challenge to find a new approach to this ancestral construction method by making it energy efficient and eco-friendly.
[Read more]Noveko
Stop viruses and bacteria
The health industry is flourishing. Noveko, of Terrebonne, is well positioned in this competitive sector thanks to a path-breaking technology that destroys the microbes in air filters and face masks.
[Read more]Powertech
The Swiss knife of heavy equipment
Imagine a multifunctional tool that is installed on the end of a
mechanical arm. The PicBucket, invented by two PowerTech engineers, has what it takes to be a world-class product.
TS Lab
extensive knowledge of surfaces
Metal friction is a state-of-the-art specialty in which a few rare businesses make their mark. TS Lab, the high tech laboratory dealing in surface engineering, is one of these.
[Read more]Xpertdoc
Hotbed of talent: The case of Xpertdoc
The Carrefour de la nouvelle économie (CNÉ) has just completed its fifth phase of development in Terrebonne. The innovative businesses in the region now have 150 000 square feet of spaces devoted to state-of-the-art activities.
[Read more]Smartlock
Find the key for your projects
Innovative businesses find in Les Moulins the vital support to fully develop their projects, thanks to a tightly knit economic fabric and resources ready to put the shoulder to the wheel. For Smartlock, the inventor of the intelligent lock, this help made it possible to
open many doors.
[Read more]
NELMAR
Business is in the bag with NELMAR
The world leader in security packaging systems, Nelmar
makes high-tech bags worthy of the film Mission Impossible.
In Terrebonne, the business found a building site conducive
to pursuing its development.
MĂ©diaclip
The idea that cliked
At 34, Marion Duchesne personifies the new entrepreneurial
guard that is flourishing in MRC Les Moulins: young and
dynamic, a reflection of the region where she lives and
where she founded her company, Médiaclip.
RONA
A giant at the heart of the action
What does a distribution centre need most to be efficient? Roads! For Pierre Pelletier, Vice-President of Logistics and Development at RONA, the equation is simple: give him an efficient highway system and he will put in place an infallible distribution system. “We need a distribution centre located close to major highways so our truck trailers can rapidly reach our markets in eastern Quebec and Ontario.”
After studying several locations north of Montreal, RONA executives chose Terrebonne to establish this state-of-the-art handling, trans-shipment and palletization centre.
[Read more]
