The Quebec company billed as Canada’s largest producer of strawberry plants has picked up new ownership after nearly 70 years.
Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for an undisclosed sum.
The Lareault business produces multiple varieties of early-, mid- and late-season strawberry plants for commercial-scale, greenhouse and U-pick growers and garden centres as well as for backyard and balcony use.
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The company also sells various varieties of raspberry, high- and lowbush blueberry, blackberry, cherry, haskap and other berry plants as well as asparagus and rhubarb, among others.
Owner/operators Luc and Lyne Lareault plan to retire from the business that’s been in family hands since 1953.
Casimir and Borodenko are the husband-and-wife operators of Greenlore, a Montreal venture capital and private equity firm with a focus on businesses in the agriculture, food and e-commerce sectors that are seeking partnerships for their growth or succession-planning phases.
Casimir was also previously a principal in Quebec private equity firm Novacap, with a focus on companies seeking either growth or exit strategies, while Borodenko previously worked for Montreal digital marketing firm Mediative.
The acquisition was backed with loans from Quebec pension fund Fonds de solidarite FTQ, financial co-operative Desjardins Group and Farm Credit Canada (FCC).
“The support of our financial partners was crucial to the deal’s success and to keeping the head office in Quebec,” Casimir and Borodenko said jointly in Thursday’s release.
“We are also delighted that all the employees will remain and that we can count on the support of Luc and Lyne Lareault to facilitate the transition,” they said. “Lareault is an excellent platform for our future projects, which will leverage the company’s enviable reputation for quality and innovation.”
Business transfers are a “major challenge” for small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Fonds de solidarite FTQ CEO Janie C. Beique said in the same release, adding that “solutions exist for entrepreneurs who want to ensure the future of the company they’ve built and for buyers who want to contribute to our local economy.”
Desjardins vice-president Jean-Yves Bourgeois, in the same release, described the deal as
“excellent news for the agri-food sector,” adding that “a good plan, developed well in advance, helps owners anticipate how they will transfer the business to the next generation. But beyond purely financial matters, buyers and sellers need to be guided on a human level during this critical period.”
Luc Lareault, who will remain with the company through the transition, described the new owners as “dynamic Quebecers who know the market very well” and have “several meaningful projects in mind for the future.”
— Glacier FarmMedia Network
