Quebec’s Équipement St-Germain Acquires Montreal-Based Location Alary
Équipement St-Germain, backed by Champlain Financial Corporation, has acquired Montreal-based Location Alary, which has been a major player in heavy equipment rental on Montreal’s North Shore for more than 50 years. Location Alary was founded in 1971 in Terrebonne, Quebec, and has developed a solid reputation across Greater Montreal, Laval and the North Shore regions of Montreal, renting equipment with and without operators. Its fleet of more than 175 units complements Équipement St-Germain's equipment offering while providing access to operated rental services.
"This transaction is part of Champlain's strategy to build the largest independent heavy equipment rental platform in Eastern Canada,” said Terry Enepekides, partner at Champlain and chairman of the board of Équipement St-Germaine. “Given the scale of the platform, our clients will benefit from a broader range of equipment, an enhanced service offering and stronger expertise, in both Quebec and Ontario."
"We are pleased to welcome all of Location Alary's employees into the Équipement St-Germain Group,” said Steve Viau, general manager of St-Germain. “We look forward to working together to keep growing the group and better serve our clients."
With this acquisition, the Équipement St-Germain Group will now have a fleet of nearly 740 units of heavy equipment across three locations in Quebec (Ste-Julie, Terrebonne, Lévis) and one location in Brockville, Ontario (KD Construction).
"When we acquired Location Alary in 2020, we saw a solid company with exceptional potential,” said Vincent Boulay, president of Groupe JMV. “Six years later, with a fleet three times as large and a presence on all the major job sites in the Greater Montreal area, that vision has come to fruition beyond our expectations. We owe this success first and foremost to Location Alary's employees, whose commitment and know-how have driven this growth day after day. We are confident that we have chosen the ideal buyer to propel the company into its next phase of development."
Champlain Financial Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in supporting and growing small and medium-sized businesses in Canada.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.