La Ressource: A Pioneer In Microbrewery

With more than 170 microbreweries in Quebec, the interest for craft beer continues to grow and several depanneurs have decided or are considering developing this niche. In doing so, they will unknowingly follow the footsteps of Dépanneur La Ressource located on Samuel-de-Champlain Street in Boucherville, which, 20 years ago, before anybody else, decided to go headlong into the offer of these specialty beers. Its current selection is impressive: more than 700 beer brands! In addition, La Ressource is one of the few depanneurs in Quebec to have remained family-owned for 42 years. With the third generation now on board, the convenience store is turning to the future by leveraging its online presence using the UNTAPPD application.

Once upon a time… 

In 1987, at the dawn of his twenties, Jean Desroches saw himself as a securities broker, but on the advice of a friend, he dropped this idea. At the same time, his father, André, was thinking of selling his convenience store to Couche-Tard’s owner, Alain Bouchard. Having always worked at the convenience store since his young age, Jean decided to buy the depanneur in order to become his own boss and to earn a decent wage. Indeed, at the time, said he with a smile, owning a convenience store could generate an income equivalent to a physician’s salary! So it looked pretty much like an interesting and challenging proposal for the young man.

The future lies in beer …

In the early 2000s, Jean and Sylvie Martel, his spouse, were looking for ways to distinguish their depanneur from the competition. Inspired by specialized stores such as bakeries, caterers and others, they strongly believed in the long-term benefit of having a distinctive niche. Seeing the emergence of microbreweries in Quebec such as Le lion d’Or in Lennoxville, Le Bilboquet in Ste-Hyacinthe, les Brasseurs du Nord and McAuslan, they began building a wide selection of craft beers for their customers. Thus, the niche has grown from year to year. Sylvie even left her job as a microbiologist to devote herself full time to the business and helps develop the beer selection she’s so fond of. Their passion grew and today, they work in partnership with no less than 75 Quebec microbreweries allowing the c-store to offer 700 genuine brands of beer.

A new generation ready to take command

Although Frédéric is only 27 years old, he already owns the depanneur in the same way as his parents.

Two years ago, he decided to take the plunge and embody the third generation of the family at the head of the convenience store. Then aged 25 and after working in the aviation field, his field of study, he felt the call for serving customers. Just like his father, he began as a teenager to lend a hand here and there. And considering that the depanneur is at a turning point, he wants to inject his ideas and vision into the future of the family business.

Frédéric fully realizes that the management of a convenience store brings several challenges:

• To innovate, invest and develop constantly;

• To meet customer needs by providing superior client services;

• To leverage new means of communication and technologies and use Web 2.0 as a marketing tool to reach its clientele;

• To properly manage electronic payments and prevent fraud, either with Interac or credit cards.

Looking ahead to the future

For Frédéric, the challenge is above all to continue the depanneur’s strategic direction, which is to be a reference and a destination for the sale of craft beers. To achieve this objective, he focuses on new communication technologies such as the social media as well as a new application called UNTAPPD in which he believes a lot.

This application allows consumers looking for hard-to-find beers to locate the stores selling them at proximity. It currently reaches 4,000 users in the Montreal area and approximately 6.3 million in the world. La Ressource has been the first certified c-store in the greater Montreal area to become part of the application. And, interestingly, last June, its sales of specialty beers reached 60% of all beer sales for the first time, compared with 40% some time ago. It should also be noted that Desroches recently invested to modernize beer fridges.

 

Offering good customer service is key

The niche strategy for microbrewery products comes with a price, such as providing quality customer service. This requires on-going training of part-time employees that are mostly young and inexperienced. Offering hundreds of beer brands also becomes a key element when hiring clerks and employees: being 18+, enjoying the taste of beer and being interested in them in order to provide good advice to customers and so on. Frédéric also mentioned that smile, initiative and efficiency are essential qualities to come up with an unparalleled customer service.

Staying proactive and profitable remains a daily challenge for the business itself. As a result, Frédéric brings some new blood and ideas in ways to improve management, marketing via social media, participation in public events, tastings and in-depth knowledge of beers thanks to specialized tools. Indeed, every two weeks, four to five new beers are added to their selection. It is also important, Sylvie mentions, to build strong relationships with suppliers. Visiting them, meeting them and keeping in close contact help to deepen their knowledge of brewing methods and new trends.

 

The more demanding aspects of running a depanneur

Frédéric, Sylvie and Jean all agree that proximity retailing has its challenges: the mandatory deposit-refund program, for instance, is one of them.  This regulatory obligation is a major hassle for owners and employees. Fortunately, as they own the depanneur building, the Desroches family has enough room to store the vast amount of empty bottles they must collect and remit. But this whole task, especially when it comes to microbrewery beers, is highly cumbersome: classifying various sizes of bottles,  handling filthy ones and so on.

Moreover, and even after all these years, running a convenience store which has, by definition, extended opening hours, 7 days a week from 7 am to 11 pm, remain a big drain.

Certainly, in 42 years, La Ressource has been through lots of highs and lows. Like many owners of this type of business, they have been visited by criminals and in this respect, Jean likes to tell a story: “A man once breaked into the convenience store: he is armed with a gun and asks for the cash. I remained calm and told him to leave me at least the $ 5 bills, as they are harder to get. The thief looked at me, took the small change only and left, just like that. I still can’t believe it!”, says he.

Jean still has the passion: “You can get a guy out of a convenience store, but not the convenience store out of the guy! ” says he, talking about him. As much Jean, Sylvie as Frederic have customer service in their blood and are proud to offer such a wide selection of craft beers. It is with great passion that they talk about their business and share what they know about the hundreds of beers they offer to their customers who are always curious to discover new ones. Jean does not regret having chosen a career in proximity retailing. Being his own boss, in contact with the public and having a very strong niche are great sources of pride and satisfaction.

 

On the photo: Frédéric Desroches with his parents, Sylvie Martel and Jean Desroches, second and third génération of owners (credit: Guylène Villeneuve)