There aren’t many stories about century-old family businesses in Quebec. Across generations, recessions, challenges, epochs, it takes vision, determination and the passing on of know-how.
Groupe Legault, owner of the Mondou pet store chain, is 104 years old and has just been taken over by the fourth generation of Legault family shareholders.
There are four of them: two brother and sister duos who are also cousins. Their fathers, Jules and Philippe Legault, retired on January 31 after 40 years to the day at the head of Groupe Legault, whose history began in 1919 with the seed processor Gloco.
Experience
“We know that we can always count on our fathers and have now found a beautiful family harmony. I think everyone has found their place,” says Nicolas Legault, who has been responsible for business development since 2008.
Nicolas was the first to make a career in the family business. His sister Marie-France, his brother Jean-Philippe, Officer of Fortune, and his cousins Marc-Antoine and Marie-Josée have joined him in recent years.
If there is trust today, it has not gone by magic. The pandemic has contributed to the growth. The organization has almost doubled in size since 2021. In particular, the takeover of Ren’s Pets in English Canada brought with it a lot of stress and health problems in the family picture. It was coach Rémi Tremblay who helped the family through this turbulent period before the generational change.
“He taught us that even in those moments when we want to get angry, we have to remember that none of us have bad intentions. There are only fears that sometimes make us clumsy,” confides Nicolas.
Challenge family business
Dealing with the sometimes contradictory topics of an entrepreneurial family is rather taboo and yet belongs to the history of all these families. Nicolas and his family have learned to look at the landscape together instead of looking at it from their own window. They took a step back and worked on the vision that the young generation wants to develop into within seven years.
As that vision became clearer and more exciting for new shareholders, confidence grew.
“Awkwardness happens when there is doubt,” thinks Nicolas.
The Legault family is now looking for a CEO to help realize this vision with the teams. There are signs of growth, initially in eastern Canada. And there are relationships with customers that Mondou wants to maintain.
“If you think about it, what’s more loyal than dogs and cats? As an organization, we want to be loyal to our customers like animals are loyal to their masters,” says Nicolas.
Quality control from A to Z
Young Legault wants to create value from what already exists for its customers and its company.
The country is huge. It’s not widely known, but the family business owns its own distribution center alongside its 130 stores and will soon control production. The new Jupiter factory in Drummondville is still in the phase-in phase and will produce dog and cat food for brands of the Legault group, in particular Vetdiet, with maximum automation.
“There are already people knocking on our doors about manufacturing. This work is approved for export and we already have sales in the United States,” says Nicolas Legault of this work, which required an investment of almost $50 million.
“It makes us proud to continue to write the chapters of a 104-year history,” he says.
Legault Group
Founding year: 1919 (Gloco, 1st company)
Founder: Jules Legault Sr
Seat of the head office: Anjou
activity area : retail, manufacturing, distribution
Number of employees : 2000
Profile of Nicolas Legault
- Work : Shareholder and responsible for business development
- Age : 39 years old
- Education: HEC Montréal, Finance and Real Estate
Do you have any information about this story that you would like to share with us?
Do you have a scoop that might be of interest to our readers?