Each in their own way, three men’s wives participate in the creation of the company.

Thanks to her artistic talents, Claudette is an early pioneer and dabbles in all areas, mostly on a volunteer basis, for fabrication, installation, welding, design, etc.

At the time, Richard’s wife, Lucie Paquet, works as an administrative assistant for the city of Quebec. With her contacts, she obtains free furniture, sells her car to the company, convinces her father to invest in the purchase of shares, etc.

Until they get an office, Jambette’s phone line was connected to Guy’s apartment. He and his wife, Danyèle Gagné, look eagerly for any phone messages left on the answering machine.

As we just mailed our flyers, we were hoping for replies. The first message left on the answering message was from the municipality of Valleyfield, which wanted information.

In North America, the market for manufactured games intended for public parks evolves after the World War II.

It was not uncommon to see companies manufacturing farm equipment also produce steel or metal playground games, which they sold in Quebec through distributors. The province of Quebec had only one manufacturer of Quebec products.

Our main competitors were the parents who would buy wood at the hardware store and build games for their children on weekends at school. There was a lot of volunteering involved in making the games back then, which does not exist today because there are regulations.

Taking the regions by storm!

In its early days, Jambette mainly serves the different regions of Quebec, such as Mauricie, the Eastern Townships, the Côte-Nord and the Gaspé Peninsula. “We made gains because the others weren’t going there.” Competitors instead focused their activities in “the jungle” of large centres. The young entrepreneurs therefore had a free hand.

We seized this opportunity.

The contacts that Guy made during his university studies in recreology are a great help to the sales department. Several of his former classmates now work for municipalities, national parks, schools, etc.

“They then become potential clients for Jambette.”

The company uses the directory of Quebec municipalities, educational institutions and daycare services and sends each one its small catalogues and brochures by mail.

The fact that Jambette offers Quebec products is important for clients, who are open to the idea.

Of course, we had to prove ourselves!

For the smooth running of operations, Jambette is divided into three entities: Richard is in charge of production, Claude of administration and Guy of sales.

Each one was master of his own kingdom. Each one decided in his respective department.

 

This division of tasks is one of the keys to their success.

Make or break

The company finds several solutions to remedy the situation and goes into innovation mode in the early 1990s by abandoning wooden play sets and replacing them with new steel and aluminum models.

The fashion for wooden play sets in public parks was part of the American trend that began in the late 1970s as the outdoors industry began to develop by building national parks for hiking.

Jambette followed this trend until it ran out of steam and changed over again.

Selling new steel and aluminum play sets is difficult for Jambette which is facing a tough market. “We sat down with Diane Déry and told ourselves that we had to relaunch our marketing image and that we needed a large catalogue.”

No bank was willing to finance this expense which was too risky. Before granting the loan, the adviser warns the three shareholders: “This is make or break, “kids”. I am lending it to you and it has to work. If it doesn’t work, we’re all in trouble…”

 

Luckily, the relaunch works and Jambette stands out with its “Stop Vandalism” initiative which promotes its fight against this social phenomenon.

“It put us on the map. It really was a good move!”

With this program, the company was trying a new approach: positioning itself ahead of the product, first promoting its philosophy and culture. “Since the product was getting lost in the shuffle, we became known by selling ourselves. It was a very bold approach at the time.”

In 1996, Jambette wins the Mercure award at the prestigious Mercuriades competition, the highest entrepreneurial distinction in Quebec.

At the award ceremony, Mr. Dutil, a businessman from Beauce, told them that the first million was the hardest to make. For the next seven years, Jambette’s sales increases by one million dollars each year.

The synergy that motivates employees and shareholders to clearly identify problems and tackle them as a team makes all the difference in this Chaudières-Appalaches company.

It’s not a single person who decides. It’s the group!

The team’s strength was felt during the first years of Jambette’s existence, when several people close to the founding group invested $5,000 in shares to provide the company with working capital.

Before these valuable supporters were reimbursed in the early 2000s, they were receiving dividends every year. While Claude’s father was hesitant at first, he was disappointed when his son paid him back his investment because he was proud to be a Jambette shareholder. “Moreover, it was his highest paying investment!”

 

Chambre de commerce de Lévis Pléiades – Prix d’Excellence 2009

Grabbing the ball

Around 2011, the company begins to manufacture its play sets with round posts, which improve the psychomotor block, instead of the old square models. Once again, the entire staff is working hard to make this change. Within 2 years, more than 400 new products are redesigned to fit the round posts.

This valuable staff engagement allows to seize every golden opportunity that presents itself. “We’re pretty good at seeing opportunities and turning around quickly. We always have been! From one season to the next, we’re able to change our catalogue, our type of approach, etc.” When a key person leaves the ship, the team takes the opportunity to make major changes as needed. “We see this opportunity! Had the person stayed, we wouldn’t have been able to do so. As they leave, we figure we can!”

Among all of a company’s resources, Jambette’s founding group still believes that the human being doing the work is the only one capable of making a real difference.

The same person can well perform in one company and do so-so in three others. If you have the best humans, who are the best mentored and trained ones, the most dedicated humans, those are the ones who are going to help the company.

In fact, there is little hierarchy at Jambette. In the early 2000s, it produced an inverted organisational chart that reflects this philosophy, with management at the bottom and employees at the top.

A few years ago, we said to ourselves that we wanted to be more of a liberated company, to flatten the hierarchy.

Now, it’s a bubble collabogramm that we have. The structures in place support this fundamental mentality of the founding owners, who are filled with pride in the human and Quebec-based company they built.