Although it is the fourth largest accounting firm in Quebec and the largest exclusively Quebec-owned, the Mallette group had no presence on the island of Montreal. An anomaly which has just been corrected with the opening of a first office in the city center of the metropolis which will serve as a platform to ensure the growth of the Quebec group over the next five years.
Last week, Mallette officially opened its first Montreal office, which occupies the 26th floor of 500 Place d’Armes in Old Montreal, but it’s just the first milestone in a planned expansion.
“We have reserved the 27th floor for the next stage,” explains Mario Bédard, chairman of the board of the accounting firm based in Quebec, but which has 40 offices in several regions of Quebec.
Mallette has not always been absent from Montreal, where it had offices since its merger with the Maheu Noiseux group in 1991, but after the takeover of Mallette Maheu by the Arthur Andersen group in 1994, the partners of the Quebec office separated from the American company in January 2002.
“We divorced from the Arthur Andersen group just before the international group was dismantled in the wake of the Enron scandal, in April 2002. We took back the Mallette name and merged with the former Mallette Maheu offices in Saguenay–Lac. -Saint-Jean”, relates Mario Bédard, long-time partner and chairman of the board of Mallette since 2014.
In 2002, Mallette therefore had 30 partners and 300 professionals in its offices in Quebec and Saguenay and began its expansion by acquiring professional offices in different regions of Quebec.
Since 2012, Mallette has made no less than 20 acquisitions of accounting offices and other professional services, notably to expand the range of services that the firm offers to its clients.
“We started approaching Montreal from 2015 by acquiring offices in Terrebonne, Saint-Hyacinthe and Saint-Jérôme, and there, we have just entered the Montreal market by purchasing a trustee firm and an analytics services office in Montreal.
“We are moving into our offices in Old Montreal because it is from here that Mallette’s next expansion will take place. Within five years, we plan to have 1,000 professionals in the greater Montreal region, including 300 in the city center,” anticipates Mario Bédard.
Since 2002, Mallette has developed its own personality by focusing primarily on supporting SMEs in the region, offering them the widest possible range of services and favoring proximity with entrepreneurs.
“Our clients are SMEs with a turnover of between 1 and 200 million. We support them with all their needs, whether it be actuarial services, auditing, group insurance plans or retirement plans, immigration or the recruitment of specialists. We are a one-stop shop for SMEs.
“In the regions, it’s more difficult to have access to lawyers. We have more than 140 people working in notaries. We make the minutes of a company just as much as the will of the owner. We also do a lot of transactional work,” explains Mario Bédard.
Well known in Quebec, where he was the instigator of the I have my place movement in favor of the construction of a new amphitheater, the city’s 400th anniversary celebrations and, more recently, as spokesperson for the Coalition from Mont Sainte-Anne, Mario Bédard now comes to Montreal every other week to do business development.
The chairman of the board has numerous meetings planned with accounting and professional services firms. There will be no shortage of opportunities, and the goal of having 1,000 more employees in the greater metropolitan area is achievable, according to him.
“I speak to several people who head offices of 20 to 100 people and there is interest in joining a group like ours,” he emphasizes.
Mallette generates 50% of its revenue from audit activities, 20% from tax and legal services, 20% from consulting services and 10% from actuarial services.
“The only limit we have is resources. In the past, almost all accountants who obtained their diploma went to a large firm to do auditing for at least two years. They are now recruited directly by firms such as insurance companies or large manufacturing companies, recruitment is more difficult,” he observes.
But for Mario Bédard and Mallette’s 130 associates, the group’s exclusively Quebec ownership is non-negotiable, it is part of the company’s very identity. “There is no question of joining forces with a large international group where you don’t decide anything; we choose to do what we want,” says the president of the council of Mallette.
