60% explosion in business transfers: a real time bomb awaits our SMEs

A real time bomb awaits our SMEs in the four corners of Quebec, while 60% more businesses than last year will have to pass the torch to avoid being sold or closing their doors altogether. The Journal went to meet buyers who took the bull by the horns.

“We expect that 24,000 businesses will be transferred this year, while we were talking about 15,000 last year. It’s an exponential increase of 60%,” warns Alexandre Ollive, CEO of the Quebec Business Transfer Center (CTEQ).

“There are many owners who do not dare say that they are going to sell. They wait until the last minute. They are afraid of losing employees, suppliers and customers,” he says.

An “explosive cocktail”

For Pierre Graff, CEO of the Regroupement des Jeunes Chambres de Commerce du Québec (RJCCQ), it is an “explosive cocktail”.

“We are talking about the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in 10 years,” he illustrates.

“When companies are bought by foreign groups, even if jobs are sometimes maintained, the profits go to the funds or families who buy them,” he observes.

“The Americans are very active in the Quebec market. This is very worrying. It makes a huge difference to see groups of Quebecers or families come together to keep our SMEs,” he emphasizes.

“We kept all the positions”

At the high-end furniture manufacturer Verbois, in Rivière-du-Loup, Marie-Ève ​​d’Amours, 34, general director and shareholder, is proud to have bought the SME.

“It probably wouldn’t have stayed in the region if it hadn’t been us who bought it,” she says.

“If it had been an owner from the Montreal region, for example, he might have had less interest in getting involved in the community,” she shares.

Founded in 1999, the company with around forty employees is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Maison Corbeil, JC Perreault… some 90 stores are requesting its furniture. Business is good.

“We kept all the positions in place. There are heads in the box,” explains the one who bought the SME in 2021 with a group of shareholders, four of whom are under the age of 40.

“We invested $2 million two years ago to install a new robotic cell and expand the factory,” she says.

No question of selling

430 kilometers away, in Montreal, Vincent Clarizio, president and creative director of the design firm PXP, behind the urban gyms in parks and the signage of Mount Royal Park, is proud to have been able to take over the SME of his parents.

“Both my parents founded it 25 years ago, and I had been in the company for 17 years,” he says.

“They wanted to retire. They were not in risk-taking and investment mode. For my part, I wanted to have my foot on the accelerator. Since the transition, I can do it,” he explains.

With his partner, Caroline Deforges, Vincent Clarizio wants nothing to do with amassing millions of dollars to sell the SME to the first person: he wants to make it grow here.

“I love what I do, so I can’t see myself doing anything else,” he says.

In textiles for four generations

Frédérik Guérin, CEO of Club Tissus, founded in 1992, was asked the famous question “Would you come and try the company, see if you like it?” after his studies.

“There are too often entrepreneurs who will cling to the head of the company out of ego for a very long time. I salute my father who, very quickly, gave me the place,” confides the one who has had his hands in it since the age of 23.

“There is this pressure; to innovate or die,” continues the 38-year-old man, who has been in the textile industry for four generations.

“If we had not managed to innovate ourselves, very probably a large group would have swallowed us up because our competitors are much bigger than us,” he continues.

“People have the same expectations as they do of Amazon and Walmart. We obviously don’t have the same resources, so our weapon is human contact,” concludes the man at the head of the retailer who has five stores and 230 employees.