The Laiterie de Coaticook as told by Jean
History
Laiterie de Coaticook is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you a bit about its history. I'll try to give you a brief summary of the company's history to the best of my knowledge and recollection.
It was in 1940 thatArthur Bédard, Arthur St-Cyr and Henri Gérin founded Laiterie de Coaticook. Two years later, Mr. Bédard purchased the shares of his two partners. He ran the company with his three sons until 1968, when the Société de placement de Coaticook bought out the Bédard family's shares. The group that formed the Société was made up of some twenty people, but it was my father, Émile Provencherand Fernand Houlewho seemed to have the most interest in the business. In 1976, they decided to acquire Laiterie de Coaticook as a sideline, since my father was president of Couillard Construction, and Fernand owned the Coaticook bus terminal.
My debut at La Laiterie
Then aged 10, I was already starting to do a few jobs to help my father. My first job at the dairy was as a "stick planter". popsicles " ! I also remember that on Saturdays, my job was to wash the 33 plastic milk crates we had at the time. Afterwards, when I was about 12I was the one who learned the milk routes in the summer. When the guys went on vacation, they'd put a driver in with me, because I didn't have my license yet, and we'd make the rounds of the convenience stores. I did that for a long time! I had the leather pouch with the change, and I'd leave with the bill book. We'd have an inventory in the truck, then arrive at the convenience store and ask the manager what he wanted. I'd write down the order, give it to the driver who'd prepare it in the truck, and then I'd prepare the invoice.
Next, as soon as I got my license to drive, I was the one who made the cheese and ice cream routes. At that time, we were producing about 7 basins of cheese a week. The roads quickly changed, and we made more and more deliveries every day. My sister Johanne also worked at the dairy. She did a lot of cheese preparation; she was in the fridge preparing the orders. Cheese used to come in one-pound blocks, and they were all packed by hand. You'd cut a cube, put it in the mold, press it and add the label. I made my first cheese basins when I was about 16. The first shift I had was on Fridays, from midnight to 8 a.m., to get fresh cheese the next morning.
1989: A pivotal year
In 1989, my sister Johanne and I became the owners of La Laiterie. This is my 31st year as owner! At that time, we were 7 employeesincluding me and my sister. Ice cream production began to increase slowly. We were producing about one mix every two weeks. To give you an idea of size, the first ice cream mixes over time were 1,100 kilos. A combination now it's 8,800 kilos, and we do 5 a day. I always say that a year of ice cream in 1989 is like two short days in 2020!
I think the first good investment Johanne and I made was the purchase of a new truck, because the one we had was a gas truck that was costing us far too much. So we took 50% of our profits for the year to buy a new truck. In my opinion, this is what enabled us, in the 1990s, to acquire new delivery routes and expand our ice cream business.
A growing family
Through all this, I was not only growing the business, but my family too. In 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1995, my four daughters were born. They all started coming to help us when they were about 5 years old. They would remove the tape cardboard boxes so we could reuse them. I also had a whole team of popsicles! It consisted of my four daughters, my niece, my wife and myself. The girls often tell me what great memories they have of doing all these tasks as a family. Depending on their age, they all performed different tasks. Myriame put the products in the bags, Valérie could count to 24, so she filled the boxes, and Roxanne and Judithe were in charge of the sticks, as I had been too. After that, they all worked at the dairy bar during the 2004 expansion. They really enjoyed customer service, even though it was sometimes difficult to get them to work in production. Now, they all have a specific specialty within the company, and I'm really happy to say that they'll be taking over eventually.
Today, Laiterie de Coaticook boasts 130 employees. I'm proud to see how far we've come to get here, and even prouder to be able to say that our products are made in our beautiful region, and bear its name!
We look forward to seeing you soon, ice cream in hand!
