Transcontinental - From a Local Business to a Multinational Business

Thank you very much for that kind introduction, Céric, and thank you to the Desjardins family for their invitation to speak here today. I am honoured.

I would have liked to have attended the workshops and other presentations yesterday and today, but as you can imagine, running Transcontinental is a full-time job that doesn't leave much room for anything else. Nevertheless, I read the program for the two days with much interest and I was impressed by its relevance.

First of all, by bringing together the managers of commercial and industrial accounts, the organizers are acknowledging that a company's growth depends in large part on its sales development, and it is crucial to pay special attention to this area.

At Desjardins, as at Transcontinental, we must be outstanding at identifying market trends and customers' emerging needs.

For example, we have determined that one trend is that our customers want to reduce the number of suppliers that they use. This offers an exceptional opportunity to grow sales if, as you are doing, you are prepared to take advantage of it.

It seems to me that you have identified the main challenges Quebec companies will be facing in the years ahead. I am thinking in particular of the development of international markets, the demands of productivity, the process of transferring companies from the current generation to the next, the many consequences of the new accounting standards and so forth. As the head of a major corporation, I can tell you that you have chosen your topics wisely.

From a more general perspective, in seeking to rethink your relationship with your customers in light of their new needs and the challenges they face, you are adopting a winning strategy. That's the strategy we're following at Transcontinental, through our Horizon 2005 business project that I will tell you more about shortly.

The goal is to become an advisor to our customers, to be viewed as a partner who adds value to their business projects, and not as a simple supplier. Above all, the focus must be on doing everything possible to make their lives easier.

The place where this rethinking of the whole approach must start is among the front line workers, through initiatives proposed by those who have first contact with the customer.

I am pleased to see that the Desjardins Movement and Transcontinental share the same business philosophy in this regard. And as you can see, I am passionately interested in the subject matter of your conference!

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Speaking of commonalities between the Desjardins Movement and Transcontinental, I can see one that is very important: excluding public corporations like Hydro-Québec or Canada Post, and governments, we share with you the fact that we serve all of Quebec. We both have a presence in most of Quebec's major regions.

Let me immediately add that our presence does not have the historical, geographic, sociological and economic weight of the Caisses Desjardins which, it must be said, has few equivalents in North America. But even so our presence is significant.

As you can see, Transcontinental has a network of 16 printing plants in Quebec: eight in the Montreal area, two in Quebec City, one in the Beauce (the finest one, of course!), and the others in Sherbrooke, Gatineau, Trois-Rivières, Louiseville and Rimouski.

We are the largest printer in Quebec City, with two plants that employ over 400 people. Transcontinental de la Capitale specializes in printing newspapers. Its customers include Le Soleil , as well as about a dozen local and regional newspapers.

Our other plant, Transcontinental Quebec City, prints a wide range of marketing products such as brochures, posters, folders, pamphlets and annual reports. It has just moved into a brand new building.

This plant has an impressive group of clients, including Desjardins Movement and major advertising and marketing agencies. Not to mention the governments of Canada and Quebec.

When we add our local and regional newspapers to our printing plants, we maintain a presence in an area that contains about 80% of the Quebec population. Our 62 weekly newspapers, which are read each week by some 2.3 million readers, stretch from the Quebec City region to the Ottawa Valley, via Lac Saint-Jean. We all know how important the local paper is to the social development of the community it serves. In Quebec, we are the leading community newspaper publishers, with 45% of the market.

Here in Quebec City, we have four very dynamic weekly papers: L'Actuel, L’Appel, the Charlesbourg Express and the Québec Express .

When we add to the map the regions that we serve directly through our Publi-Sac or, in some cases, through agreements with sub-contractors, we cover the entire territory of Quebec. Publi-Sac is distributed to 2.8 million households every week.
With our newspapers and our regional Publi-Sac centres, we have a total of 45 offices in Quebec.

In all, Transcontinental has 12,000 employees, of whom 5000 are in Quebec: I suspect that most of them are members of the Caisses! Our annual payroll in Quebec is about 250 million dollars, which means that we make a direct contribution to the economic vitality of Quebec's major regions.

We also play an active role in the communities we operate in. The notion of social responsibility is solidly rooted in our business culture.

Indeed, Transcontinental was ranked third in the Industrial Category in Canada by Corporate Knights, an organization dedicated to the promotion of socially responsible corporations. Just to give you an idea, we devote on average more than 1% of our pre-tax profits to social causes, through donations and sponsorships, free printing or distribution services, or free advertising space in our publications.

To that we must add the community commitments of our officers and employees, commitments which we strongly encourage, in particular by asking our local managers to give priority to projects that their employees are actively engaged in.

Transcontinental is also a major partner in the regions. In the Quebec City area alone, we estimate that we spend more than 25 million dollars in annual purchases of goods and services from companies that surely include Desjardins clients.

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There is also a certain complicity, if I may put it that way, between a large financial institution such as Desjardins and Transcontinental. Not only because we print the magazine Ma Caisse , but also because of our business and finance publications, a niche we lead in Quebec.

So we cover your activities with journalistic professionalism and many of your managers and employees read our publications.

And when I say publications, I am thinking in particular of the newspaper Les Affaires , which just celebrated its 75th anniversary, of Revue Commerce ,Affaires Plus ,PME , and Finance et Investissement . Here in Quebec City itself, we have the Journal économique , a member of Transcontinental since 1998.

I'd like to just mention that we have prepared a set of all these publications for you, as a small token of our esteem. As you leave, remember to pick up your Publi-Sac!

Lastly, of course, there are Transcontinental's other roots in Quebec, at our head office in Montreal. I have often publicly expressed Transcontinental's attachment to that great city and our confidence in its future.

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This introduction is directly related to the topic of my presentation today. I was asked to talk to you about Transcontinental's evolution from its original printing plant in Montreal in 1976, with its 30 employees and income of three million dollars the first year, to our position today.

I am going to start with a brief overview of the company. Then I am going to outline the principles and values that have guided us over the past 28 years.

I have titled my presentation: From a Local Business to an International Business: the Model and Values that have Guided Transcontinental Since 1976 . First of all, I wanted to keep things relative: on the scale of North America, Transcontinental is just a simple business. This reality is what drives our niche strategy, which I shall talk about shortly.

I decided to add images to make the presentation more concrete and because the topic lends itself well to them.