June 2018

66 67 ENTREPRISE P. BOUCHER We work with world renowned shoe and hand- bag brands to develop high quality leather. The Boucher family has been involved in the leather business since 1891 and the current owner, Dominique Boucher, is the fifth generation to pursue his passion for leather. It all started 115 years ago with a small family tannery in St-Pascal, Quebec, Canada. As the industry has evolved to Asian-based manufacturing, our business model has changed to service the market. We now offer leathers made in South America and Thailand and have sales offices in North America and China. The partnership between Royer and P. Boucher has worked very well and continues to grow by offering the best products possible without ever compromising quality. Contact Us 418-492-1019 • 418-492-2492 www.epboucher.com LIGHTWEIGHT | HEAVYWEIGHT | WATERPROOF customerservice@epboucher.com A Proud Partner with L.P. Royer Inc. by one.When Canada went to war in the early 1940s, and he was unable to procure high-quality leather, Royer learned the chemistry of tanning and opened his own tannery. “If others can do it, so can we,” he was known to have said. His values formed the foundation of what characterizes the company today: innovation, ingenuity, determina- tion and perseverance, discipline and rigor, atten- tion to detail, and respect for work well done. In 1965, Louis-Philippe’s son, Henri, took over the management of the company. He made sever- al improvements to the manufacturing operation and to the product line, developing a new type of leather that allowed the direct-vulcanization soling process. That was an important step for the company, which then specialized its activity on rubber vulcanization. It was also under Henri’s management that the company started to de- velop specialty products for different industries with high occupational safety requirements. “The company started making work boots for whoever wanted work boots,” LeBlond explains. “Eventually it got into specific industries. Up here, there is a lot of logging and forestry, lots of mines. You’d get a request from a dealer saying, ‘By the way, local- ly here, I have this steel plant,’ or ‘this mine,’ and that’s when these products got very industrial.” Pursuing the family tradition of entrepreneur- ship and innovation, Louis-Philippe’s grandson, Yves, took over the business in 1986. He incorpo- rated the concept of lean manufacturing to op- erations, introduced the ISO 9001 quality man- agement system, and pioneered the exclusive XPAN dual-density rubber technology. Facing the invasion of Asian products, Yves Royer decided to focus the company activities on highly-special- ized work boots and shoes for the most extreme work environments on the planet. He was then L.P. ROYER, INC. The Boucher family has been involved in the leather business since 1891 and the company’s current owner, Domi- nique Boucher, is the fifth generation to pursue his passion for leather. Entre- prise P. Boucher has also been associ- ated with L.P. Royer for generations. Over time, both companies have had to adapt to a changing world and a com- petitive marketplace. While Royer has always been a symbol of quality man- ufacturing, with rigorous testing meth- ods to make sure all of its components and final products meet the highest levels in the industry, the 84-year-old shoe manufacturer has recently pushed its supply chain to perform better, so that it can offer the best products pos- sible. Similarly, 15 years ago, EP Boucher moved its production facilities from Canada to South America and Asia with the intent to continue specializing in the manufacture of its waterproof leathers with excellent performing properties, but at more competitive prices. The partnership between these two iconic Canadian companies continues unabated, and we at EP Boucher hope to go on working with the Royer team, supporting their efforts to grow their business without ever compromising the quality of their boots. www.epboucher.com