![\"\"](\"http:\/\/telecon.dev.leeroy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/11-300x240.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Over time, the group broadened its field of activity by opening offices in Montr\u00e9al and Qu\u00e9bec City.<\/p>\n
In\u00a02011, the two founders of the 1,100-employee company decided to sell to Capital r\u00e9gional et coop\u00e9ratif Desjardins and the Caisse de d\u00e9p\u00f4t et placement du Qu\u00e9bec, which invested $60\u00a0million in the company.<\/p>\n
In December\u00a02012, Telecon recruited Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux as its new President and CEO and the group\u2019s new shareholders gave him the mandate of developing the company\u2019s full growth potential, which he accepted readily. \u00a0Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux had plenty of practical experience. \u00a0He was President and CEO of the Qu\u00e9bec bath and shower manufacturer Maax from\u00a01998 to\u00a02006, and in\u00a02004 the Beauce group was sold to the J.W. Childs, Borealis and OMERS investment fund.\u00a0 After having led an environmental services firm for five years, he joined Telecon with the commitment of maximizing its Canadian presence. \u00a0\u201cWhen I came on board, we had only one network construction activity. \u00a0I wanted to give the company more depth and visibility in the design sector, which is why we acquired the Engineering Services division of Netricom, a company that had offices in Ontario and Western Canada.\u00a0 We positioned ourselves to better serve our major customers like Bell, Telus, Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco\u2026 across the Canadian territory,\u201d explains Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux.<\/p>\n
After spending\u00a02013 cutting costs and reorganizing activities at Telecon, in April\u00a02014 the company acquired the Engineering Services division of Netricom, a struggling company in which Guy Lalibert\u00e9 had once been a shareholder. \u00a0\u201cCapital r\u00e9gional et coop\u00e9ratif Desjardins invested some $20 million as part of this acquisition and we took advantage of it to restructure the company, now called Telecon Group.\u00a0 CRCD and the Caisse now respectively own 60% and 30% of the group\u2019s shares, and management owns 10%. \u00a0We went from 8\u00a0to 22\u00a0shareholders executives,\u201d explains Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Last year, Telecon Group completed two small acquisitions that reinforced its presence in new markets.<\/p>\n Today, it has 2,500\u00a0employees, more than half of whom work in the Engineering, Design and Location division, in some 40\u00a0offices across the country.\u00a0Last year, the company made $350\u00a0million in revenue\u2014double what it made three years ago\u2014and its profits also more than doubled over the same period. \u00a0The President and CEO explains that Telecon Group is in a growing market and it will be for years to come.\u00a0 That is why he first wanted to build a strong management team, by associating himself with experienced partners such as Christian Paupe as Vice-President – Finance, who was formerly Chief Financial Officer at Quebecor World, Transcontinental,\u00a0Southam and Yellow Media. \u00a0\u201cWe now have a strong national presence and we bid on major new infrastructure projects.\u201d \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux, President and CEO of Telecon Group \u201cBell announced that it will invest $1.1 billion to replace its copper wire network with fibre optics in Toronto. \u00a0We obtained $100\u00a0million from that contract and Bell will have to carry out the same conversion work in Montr\u00e9al. \u00a0We will be there to bid on it,\u201d assures Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux. \u00a0Telecon Group also recently bid on the $1-billion Telus contract to convert copper to fibre optics in Edmonton and Vancouver. \u00a0\u201cThree years ago, we were not present in these markets. \u00a0Today, we are present and very competitive in every Canadian market,\u201d explains the President and CEO. \u00a0Within three years, Telecon Group plans to increase its revenues to $500\u00a0million and, within five years, the Group expects to make its entrance on the American market through targeted acquisitions. \u00a0\u201cMany owners of companies in the telecom sector are baby boomers reaching their retirement age, and they have no other option but to sell their companies,\u201d observes Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux.\u00a0 Telecon Group\u2019s President and CEO is there to hear them out\u2026\u00a0\u201cCapital r\u00e9gional et coop\u00e9ratif Desjardins and the Caisse de d\u00e9p\u00f4t et placement du Qu\u00e9bec have not set a deadline to continue their capital participation in Telecon Group,\u201d says Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux.<\/p>\n Its shareholders may be pleased with the value appreciation of the company\u2019s accounts, but Andr\u00e9 H\u00e9roux does not rule out that going public could be the way for the company\u2019s two main shareholders to eventually exit Telecon Group\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n Post from de La Presse+<\/strong>, 2016, march 1st<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Originally called Telecon, the company was founded in Trois-Rivi\u00e8res in\u00a01967, in the wake of the first telecommunications and cable television networks implemented by Qu\u00e9bec Tel in Rimouski and Cogeco in Trois-Rivi\u00e8res. Over time, the group broadened its field of activity by opening offices in Montr\u00e9al and Qu\u00e9bec City. In\u00a02011, the two founders of the 1,100-employee… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":1393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1395"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1403,"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395\/revisions\/1403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}