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Bombardier sells off historic Ski-Doo line

Broadcast Date: April 3, 2003

In response to a $12-billion debt and a decline in air travel, Canadian corporate giant Bombardier brings in the big guns. Paul Tellier is plucked from Canadian National and installed as the new CEO with the hope he can turn the company around. Three months later, on April 3, 2003, Tellier rolls out a recovery plan that involves the sale of Bombardier's recreational products division including the popular Ski-Doo line. As can be seen from this clip, this decision to sever the roots of Bombardier sends shockwaves throughout the industry.

Bombardier sells off historic Ski-Doo line

• A talented mechanic with a dream of building a vehicle that could "float on snow," Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented his first snowmobile in 1937. In 1942, the Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. was established under the name, L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée in Valcourt, Que.

• By the 1960s, the company was flourishing due to the tremendous sales of its popular product, the snowmobile and the Ski-Doo product line. But an energy crisis and economic slowdown hit Bombardier hard in the 1970s forcing it to diversify. For more watch the Bombardier clip.

• Upon winning a bid for the construction of 400 subway cars in Montreal in 1974, Bombardier fortuitously enters the mass transportation market. From that point on, the company put the roots of its empire, the snowmobile, on the backburner. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Bombardier was focused instead on the production of subway and rail passenger cars and airplanes.

• The recreational product line involved 7,500-employees responsible for producing Ski-Doo snowmobiles, Sea-Doo personal watercraft and Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors. The recovery plan and sale of the recreational product line was projected to bring in $1.225 billion. Bombardier sold the business to a group of investors that included Bain Capital, members of the founding Bombardier family, and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The investors formed a new corporation, Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., to buy the division and as of 2006, the Ski-Doo product line remains in their hands.

• As of 2006, Bombardier's core business is focused on three main areas: aerospace, transportation and capital in the form of railcar leasing and management services. As of January 31, 2005, 59,550 employees were based at its head office in Montreal, Quebec. Its revenues for the fiscal year were $15.8 billion US, with total assets worth about $20.1 billion US. Bombardier shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD).

Also on April 3:
• 1973: The first private cell phone call is made. Motorola Corporation executive Martin Cooper tests his company's new invention by calling a rival at Bell Laboratories from a New York street.
• 1974: A tornado kills eight people and injures 20 in Windsor, Ont.

Bombardier sells off historic Ski-Doo line

Medium: Television

Program: The National

Broadcast Date: April 3, 2003

Guest(s): Ross Healy, Paul Tellier

Host: Peter Mansbridge
Reporter: Shari Okeke

Duration: 2:00

Last updated:
March 6, 2008