Our Company

In 1968, Marcel bought his older brother’s car garage and named it “Garage Marcel Cayouette”. Not long after, he met a customer who had a problem with the rotation on his grapple, which was only turning 260 degrees at the time. After several trials and prototypes that he was working on evenings and weekends, he created the first continuous rotation in 1972.

By word of mouth, the product became so popular that in 1975, Marcel Cayouette and his wife, Justine Leblond, built a building next door to the garage to meet demand, and founded the company “Les Rotors du Québec”, which later became “Rotobec”.

In 1979, the little garage became too small. Marcel and Justine decided to expand to a new building in the industrial park, which is where today’s headquarters and main factory are still located.

In 1985, Rotobec sold its first grapple attachment outside of Canada and the United States. The first international sale was in Chile, and was made to our very first international customer, who is still one of our loyal customers today.

In 1989, Marcel and Justine decided to add outside shareholders to the company, namely key people in their respective fields: Rejean Lessard, Renaud Bourdon, Donald Gilbert, Marcel Ferland, & Robert Bouchard.

22 years after the company was founded, Marcel and Justine are taking a well-deserved retirement from day-to-day operations.

In 1998, we inaugurated our first factory in the United States, a big expansion! This factory, located in Littleton, New Hampshire has been expanding ever since and mainly produces our renowned Elite Loaders.

Marcel and Justine add their children to the company’s shareholding.

Unlike many companies, Marcel’s successor is not one of his sons, but an outside shareholder. This decision was based on the strengths of his children, who are more involved in production and less in the administrative side of the business. As Marcel often says: “You can’t be good at everything, you have to know how to surround yourself with people who are better than you in the areas where you’re weaker.”

Hired in 2007 as Finance Director, Julien Veilleux is added to the group of shareholders in 2010.

On August 25, 2015, a fire broke out in the 3rd phase of the plant, causing serious damage to the plant and its equipment just a few weeks before the company’s 40th anniversary celebrations. To find out how the company managed this situation, watch this documentary on the event: Rotobec Factory Tour.

After 31 years with Rotobec, including 10 as CEO, Robert Bouchard is handing over the reins to Julien Veilleux. He sells his shares in the company to the 2nd generation of the Cayouette family and Julien Veilleux.

Fast forward to more recently, we expanded our production capacity by adding a third factory. In 2019, we inaugurated our Groveton facility in New Hampshire. This brand new factory produces our one and only Rotobec Orange Peel Grapples, RPAs and waste grapples and is growing steadily.

Today, Rotobec is still owned by the second generation of the Cayouette family: Richard, Sylvain and Benoît, and by Julien Veilleux, external shareholder. With Richard, Sylvain and Benoit Cayouette all retired, they are starting to pave the way for the arrival of the third generation.