Business
Will Bombardier ''Take Off'' Again?
Will Bombardier ''Take Off'' Again?
About this update from Bombardier Inc. Class A
[{"type":"text","content":"\nWill Bombardier ''Take Off'' Again?\n\n\n Feb. 26, 2009 (Baystreet.ca) -- In a garage in rural Quebec, in 1937, J. Armand Bombardier invented the snowmobile, the device upon which an empire was based. It was a marvelous little way to get around in winter, particularly in farm areas where there were no paved roads, enabling veterinarians to journey to help stricken animals, and the snowmobile became synonymous with snow, and with Canada. Before long, Bombardier became the gold standard for means of transport other than the Ski-Doo, on surfaces other than snow or ice. There were trains, planes, military transport equipment and before long, Bombardier was a major player on the world transportation and world equity stages. It became a Fortune 500 company, with sales of all its products in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, its stock languishes below the three-dollar mark Canadian, another example of a glamour-puss losing her looks. Catering to the rural market – much as Henry Ford did with the tractor before he stumbled on the horseless carriage – J. Armand Bombardier founded L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée in 1942. Before the 1940s were out, the Quebec government passed a law governing snow removal on rural roads, forcing the company to adapt to survive. Indeed, Bombardier started building a truck with interchangeable skis and wheels for the lumber industry. But the snowmobile gained a second life when, in 1959, J. Armand perfects what he calls the Ski-Doo, a personal snow craft that catches on and became something of the cornerstone of the new company. Founding father J. Armand Bombardier was only 57 when he passed from the scene in 1964, and it was left to his successors, primarily his son-in-law Laurent Beaudoin, to take the next steps into the future. It is under Beaudoin that the company experienced explosive growth, starting in the 1960s when he took the company public on the Toronto and Montreal Stock Exchanges, continuing into the 70s, with its first mass transit contract in Montreal. The 1980s brought a mass transit contact from the New York subway system, and a foray into the aerospace industry, with Bombardier's purchase of Canadair, the leading Canadian aircraft manufacturer of Challenger widebody business jets and the CL-215 amphibious firefighting aircraft. Similar deals were made with Euro...