Replays
Executive summary
Premier Tech: Audacity as a Driving Force
Building an international company in Rivière-du-Loup? Conducting cutting-edge research outside a major urban centre? Operating across multiple business sectors without losing focus? Premier Tech has proven each of these assumptions wrong. For its President and Chief Executive Officer, Jean Bélanger, the formula behind the century-old company’s success comes down to three ingredients: a passion for building, a tolerance for risk and teamwork. Invited to speak at the Canadian Club of Montreal on September 28, Jean Bélanger chose to share the stage with two members of his close leadership team: Albert Dang Vu, Senior Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Premier Tech Digital, and Constance Deschênes St-Pierre, Vice-President, Strategy, Planning and Sustainability at Premier Tech. The conversation was moderated by former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, now a partner at Therrien Couture Joli-Cœur. “Having the three of us here was more representative of Premier Tech than having me here alone,” Bélanger explained. That choice was no coincidence. At Premier Tech, intrapreneurship is part of the company’s DNA: each new business has grown out of expertise and assets already present within the organization. The challenge is to preserve that spirit across teams with diverse cultures, spread around the world. “The challenge is to keep that appetite for risk and willingness to be bold alive,” Jean Bélanger emphasized. Under his leadership, the company has grown from $50 million in revenue in 1989 to more than $1 billion today. Premier Tech has approximately 6,000 team members across 31 countries, operates around 50 plants in 18 countries and is active in six major business sectors.
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A Natural Evolution
Originally rooted in the production of sphagnum peat moss for horticulture, Premier Tech never decided to “pivot” during some major strategic meeting, according to Jean Bélanger. Instead, the company evolved intuitively.
In 1983, it created a biotechnology team dedicated to plant health and nutrition. In the early 1990s, it launched a second business: robotics and automation for packaging equipment.
“We like manufacturing, but we also like setting the pace and controlling our own destiny. The best way to do that is to master the technologies.”
As for the skeptics who thought his ambitions were unrealistic, his response is simple:
“Instead of asking ourselves why it couldn’t be done, we did it.”
Microbes: An Asset Gaining in Value
Premier Tech has been active in biotechnology for 40 years. The company has a portfolio of approximately 1,500 microbial strains and plant-based active ingredients, originally developed for its growing media to naturally strengthen plant resilience.
Today, these ingredients are finding new applications, explained Constance Deschênes St-Pierre. The company had attempted to introduce them into agriculture early on, with limited success at the time. They are now being used to improve soil health, reduce fertilizer use and increase carbon storage.
“These are active ingredients that have been in our portfolio for a long time, but more recently, we have been able to deploy them in different ways,” she explained.
Biotechnology has also expanded into other Premier Tech businesses, including wastewater treatment, where its biofilters rely on microorganisms and natural materials. The company is now exploring applications in human and animal health.
“It continues to inspire us,” the Vice-President noted.
Premier Tech’s process laboratories are located in Toulouse, one of many signs of the company’s deep roots in France. Jean Charest noted that Premier Tech is the sixth-largest Canadian investor in France, where it is perceived as a French company.
“It has always been fundamental for us to manufacture, to master the science behind our products, but also to stay connected to our markets. To be local while being global,” Jean Bélanger summarized.
Learning to Work with AI
Artificial intelligence is opening another field of experimentation for Premier Tech. Albert Dang Vu explained that the company’s first priority is training its team members and helping them become comfortable with the tools.
“We keep them up to date on technologies and then encourage them to experiment,” he explained.
The challenge is to combine their knowledge of a particular field, such as horticulture, with the possibilities offered by AI to solve problems and improve decision-making.
Premier Tech is also exploring humanoid robots.
“For us, in manufacturing, there are two questions: can we become more productive and improve production quality, and can we improve health and safety?” Albert Dang Vu explained.
Reducing repetitive tasks and workplace injuries are among the potential applications being considered. However, this work remains exploratory, and no solution is expected within the next two years.
Staying Connected to Its Markets
From a commercial standpoint, the tariff war initiated by the Trump administration has not changed Premier Tech’s ambitions south of the border.
Founded in New York in 1923 before establishing itself in Canada, the company has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. market. Until 1990, 80% of the sales from its sole business at the time, horticulture, were generated there.
“We want to continue growing in the United States. It is our natural, historic market,” Jean Bélanger said.
He refuses to give in to speculation, particularly since the headwinds facing businesses extend beyond tariffs to include energy costs, logistics and access to certain materials. His response is to maintain a presence on the ground and stay in close dialogue with customers.
“In five, ten or fifteen years, hopefully this will have been nothing more than a blip on the curve.”
Diversifying markets has become essential for many companies in the current environment. Jean Charest therefore asked how Premier Tech had managed to do so, noting that free trade agreements alone are not enough if SMEs do not take the initiative to pursue new markets themselves.
At Premier Tech, international expansion began early. As far back as 1989, its teams were prospecting in Europe, including the Soviet Union. Jean Bélanger himself, an industrial engineer by training, was sent on the road by his colleagues to sell.
His advice to business leaders:
“There is no magic wand. If we don’t take that first step, if we don’t take that risk, every day takes us further away from our goal.”
Cycling as a Mirror
Involved in cycling for more than 30 years, Premier Tech was a main partner of the UCI Road World Championships, which concluded in Montreal the day before the conference.
Since this season, the company has also been a co-title sponsor of the Alpecin-Premier Tech men’s team and the FENIX-Premier Tech women’s team on the WorldTour circuit.
Jean Bélanger sees the sport as a reflection of Premier Tech’s corporate culture.
“Cycling is a window into Premier Tech: you put yourself aside so that a teammate can cross the finish line and raise their arms, but it’s a team victory.”
He mentioned Hugo Houle, who was in the room and won a stage of the Tour de France in 2022, noting that his role often consists of helping other riders win.
“It’s the same thing in a company. While we’re speaking with you here, we have people all over the world working in plants or with customers. If they don’t do great work, we wouldn’t be able to come here and speak with you.”
A philosophy that inspired Jean Charest’s closing thought: culture always prevails over strategy.
We were told it was impossible to have an international presence in Rivière-du-Loup or to conduct research in the region. Instead of wondering why, we just did it. »
Jean Bélanger
Go directly to the sections that interest you the most:
- Mot de bienvenue
- Origines centenaires et culture d'entreprise
- Biotechnologies et développement durable
- Le pivot technologique et l'innovation
- Intelligence artificielle et culture de l'audace
- Planification stratégique et marché américain
- Robotique humanoïde et durabilité d'impact
- Leadership de terrain
- Cyclisme
- Mot de clôture
Biographie(s)
Jean Bélanger
A passionate entrepreneur, Jean Bélanger draws upon over 35 years of experience at Premier Tech. His determination, dynamism and ability to build on various innovative concepts allowed him to guide this Rivière-du-Loup company as a world-class leader and pioneer in six core industries: Growers and Consumers, Water and Environment, Systems and Automation, Digital, Life Sciences and Controlled Culture. Through his unifying spirit, open-mindedness and easily approachable nature, Jean Bélanger has played an integral part in defining the very core of Premier Tech’s identity, which revolves around a strong and sustainable corporate Culture. By surrounding himself with talented people and relying on a collective power that fosters intrapreneurship and the Premier Tech Team’s desire to constantly exceed its ambitions, he remains successful in guiding Premier Tech’s steady and consistent growth, which is driven by its team members. In collaboration with its Leadership Team, he took Premier Tech from a North American company with sales of 50 million dollars in 1989 to the current global company. With sales of more than one billion dollars, Premier Tech is driven by the commitment of some 6 000 team members worldwide. In addition to his work at Premier Tech, Jean Bélanger strongly believes in the importance of being fully committed through an active company’s involvement in the key areas of health, education and sports across home bases worldwide. He currently sits on Premier Tech’s Board of Directors, and on various advisory boards and boards of directors to share his experience and know-how with other Quebec companies. Jean Bélanger holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Polytechnique Montréal.
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