On the eve of the heat of July, the family business LJ Déry is preparing for what is for it the busiest period of the year. Over the coming weeks, the dairy product distributor will transport millions of liters of ice cream on the roads of Quebec.
“We transport 50 million litres of dairy products per year, and we are busiest in the summer,” explains entrepreneur Jean Déry.
But it wasn’t always like this. When the former trucker founded his dairy supply, distribution and storage company with his wife Lynda de Carufel in 1997, only a handful of trucks were plying the roads of the Quebec City region.
“The environment has evolved a lot over the years, demand has grown a lot and products have diversified,” says Mr. Déry. “There are now more lactose-free options, gelato, that kind of thing, and then there are more places where you can eat ice cream all year long.”
So, 27 years later, LJ Déry has a fleet of 25 refrigerated trucks, a sign of the company’s growth, whose turnover now reaches $15 million per year. “We weren’t there at all at the beginning,” recalls Jean Déry.
New distribution center
The dairy products distributor also began construction of a new distribution center earlier this week at a cost of $12 million. “It’s an entirely private investment, there is no government money in it,” proudly says Jean Déry.
The company of 40 employees is therefore preparing to leave its current 17,000 square foot warehouse for brand new facilities, almost twice as large (32,000 square feet). “The demand is so strong that we could have tripled,” boasts the entrepreneur, who will hire 10 more people when the new center comes into service next year.
A family matter
For Mr. Déry, the company’s success is based on its “versatility.” “There is practically no one who does what we do, that is, who does production, transportation, and warehousing, in short, who can take customers by the hand from A to Z,” he says.
But even more, the former trucker is proud of the place that his children, Gabrielle and Antoine, now occupy in the company. “They have been 100% involved for several years, and they have important positions. Their respective spouses are also involved, so it’s not just the immediate family,” he confides.
