Two months after completing the integration of 11 Brault stores
To the surprise of many, BMTC decided last May to bring together under the single Tanguay banner the three furniture and appliance store brands it has been overseeing for years, namely Brault
“We chose to keep the banner that had the best formula. The Tanguay stores had already undertaken to modify their offer by having many more house products in stores and the name is firmly anchored in Quebec.
“Consumers in our Brault stores
The BMTC Group network now has 24 Tanguay stores and 5 Tanguay l’Entrepôt stores, it employs 1,000 people and has a turnover of 750 million.
“We just sold the Montreal warehouse for 67 million. It was over 600,000 square feet and it was very long, which is not practical for our teams. We are going to build a new distribution center of 300,000 square feet, but in height, which will facilitate the use of robots. Same thing in Lévis, we will go from a 400,000 square foot warehouse to 300,000 square feet,” explains the CEO.
In office since 2018, Marie-Berthe Des Groseillers succeeded her father, Yves, who built the BMTC Group by acquiring the Brault stores
When she started out in the business, Marie-Berthe Des Groseillers set up the Brault Foundation
“It is Jacques Tanguay who is president for retail activities at Tanguay, I am developing the long-term vision of the BMTC Group and I do not want to put all my eggs in one basket. I started to develop real estate because my father built a network of stores which are all very well located,” explains the CEO.
Real estate is the third sector of activity of the BMTC Group. The company manages a portfolio of securities of more than 200 million, built from excess liquidities and cash from the group.
“We will soon begin the construction of five residential towers on the site of our former store on Le Corbusier Boulevard, in Laval, right next to the Montmorency metro station and Place Bell. We aim within 10 years to build five towers which will total 1200 doors and which will cost 100 million each”, explains the CEO.
The BMTC Group has partnered with developer Urbania, which will take a 25% stake in the project. Another residential complex will soon be launched on the site of the former Brault
Finally, a third high-rise project is in the works, but Ms. Des Groseillers does not want to say more for the moment, because there are still details to be finalized.
“There is no volume on our title, in particular because it is not liquid. Our family holding company controls 63% of the common stock and Fidelity controls 13%. In fact, the only buyer is us because we have been buying back our shares for 20 years and this is the investment that brings us the most, ”underlines Marie-Berthe Des Groseillers.
Yves Des Groseillers tried to privatize the BMTC Group about fifteen years ago, without success.
With her portfolio of securities and her foray into the real estate field, the CEO wants to protect the group against sudden changes in the field of retail trade.
“I want to ensure the sustainability of the business. There, we have been in a negative cycle for six to eight months and it will last another year at least. Consumers have to pay more for their groceries and their mortgage, they have less leeway to buy in our stores when, during the pandemic, our sales of household appliances had quadrupled,” notes Marie-Berthe Des Groseillers.
