The Tremblay Family Business: Experience & Young Power

For the Tremblays, expertise in forestry runs in the family. Marcel founded the family business in 1979. Two generations later, the joy of the work still spurs the operations as his grandchildren are about to take charge of the company.

Forestiers Marcel Tremblay & Fils has progressed a long way from the time when Marcel started harvesting timber in the province of Quebec with a chainsaw and a forwarder. Forest machines have developed a great deal, and today they are equipped with computers that enable getting real-time data on the dimensions of logs. The machines’ location is known with the help of GPS, and through a network connection, the data can be sent directly to the plant.

Mathieu, 33, Francis, 31, and Simon, 23, represent the new generation of the Tremblay family business. The brothers became shareholders three years ago, and they own 50 per cent of the company, with their father Bertrand owning the other half.

In the course of the past few years, Bertrand, 59, has left the daily work with forest machines and focused on managing the company’s finances. He is transferring the responsibility for the company to his sons, while gradually preparing for his retirement.

The Expertise of a New Generation

When the sons joined the company’s operations, they also brought some of their friends with them. The company’s employees are now younger than ever: their average age is 33 years.

When this workforce enters the forest, there are few grey-haired ones in the group. They listen to punk rock and talk about snowmobiles, jet skis and other outdoor hobbies.

“We have a great atmosphere at work, and we like spending time together. This helps us find new employees, as we are always in need of good workers,” Mathieu says.

The company trains its operators itself, and has 14 employees operating its three machine chains. A new trainee is taken on almost every year.

“By training new operators, we secure the future of our company,” Bertrand says. He entrusted the expensive forest machines to his sons before they were 20 years old.

The quality of life is a priority for the team, which works approximately 42 weeks in a year.

“We take a week’s holiday in the summer, a week during the hunting season and two weeks at Christmas. There is also a pause of 4–6 weeks in the work in the spring when the ground is too wet,” says Mathieu, who is the father of five-year-old Logan.

Francis also has two sons: Aleck, 5 years old, and Jayce, 4.

“Our children visit us in the forest whenever they can.”

The first Scorpion in Canada

According to Mathieu, the family business acquired its first PONSSE machine, which was a Dual machine, in 2004. They immediately liked the machines, as well as the local service offered by Hydromec. Since then, Ponsse has been the reliable machine supplier of Forestiers Marcel Tremblay & Fils.

The company also purchased the first Scorpion delivered to Canada in 2014.

“The machine has so much technology that it may scare a beginner,” says Mathieu, who was the first Scorpion operator in the company.

The Scorpion, equipped with an H6 harvester head, is still an important machine for the company. They have also acquired two track-based Eltec harvesters with a PONSSE H7 harvester head.

All the forwarders owned by the family business are PONSSE machines. In July 2021, it received a brand new Elephant King equipped with an Active Crane K121 loader.

“With the new forwarder, we can improve the efficiency of our work since 20 per cent more wood fits in every grapple load,” Mathieu says.