(Originally published in TOURISM)
The 65-year-old owner of Club Chambeaux, Air Saguenay, Labrador Air Safari (and co-owner of Nolinor Aviation) just doesn't include the words "slowing down" in his vocabulary. Nowadays, he spends a lot of his time travelling around the world to hunt, fish, meet friends and find out for himself how world market trends will influence the business he has built over four decades.
Jean-Claude Tremblay is not only one of the most successful hunting and fishing outfitters in Canada, he also built the largest bush air carrier organization in North America. What is striking about his story is how this Jonquière‑based entrepreneur grew his business through a series of clever air carrier and outfitting allocation deals that leave you wondering how he managed to weather so much risk, so naturally!
Tremblay had his first taste of the hospitality business in the much‑celebrated Saguenay “brasseries” sector (the Quebec equivalent of English pubs). The man had always loved hunting and fishing, and he bought his first small aircraft in 1967, flying enthusiastically all across northern Quebec. His outdoor advertising business (Enseignes Neon Otis) allowed him to dream of one day owning outposts in exotic places with names like “Croissant Vermeil” and “Lac Margane”; his first stake in the outfitting business (in 1973) involved exclusive access over a 324,000 hectare territory, about 150 km north from Chicoutimi at Homamo Lake.
“It was the ultimate destination at the time for indigenous trout in Quebec,” he notes. “The company was in business with Air Saguenay, and we were getting 1,000 to 1,200 guests a year, 80% of whom were Americans. Air Saguenay looked after their transportation needs.”
In 1980, Tremblay bought Air Saguenay.
As he sifted through his new acquisition’s books, he came across a lease covering the Muguet and Delorme Lake areas, where a large hydro electric project meant the Caniapiscau River would be flooded and a huge reservoir created over much of the area. “We realized this territory would soon be under water, and I opted to hold on to the relocation rights until an opportunity came along.” The wisdom of this risky‑appearing venture became apparent much later.
Meanwhile, Tremblay acquired a Fermont‑based air carrier which opened a corridor to northern Québec and gave him the rights to Club Chambeaux Outfitters, which was then mostly undeveloped. “That’s how we got into hunting. We opened 6 lodges there in 1984, welcoming between 800 and 1,000 clients a year, most of whom flew in from Montréal, on now‑defunct Québécair. By 1987, there were already two or three caribou hunting outfitters in Schefferville.”
But the client volume did not justify a direct Montréal to Schefferville air connection, so Tremblay entered into discussions about moving his Fermont operations to Schefferville in order to increase the local client pool. So, with 1,500 clients, the opportunity to lure a carrier for the Montréal leg looked much more attractive; indeed, City Express eventually agreed to 50 regularly scheduled flights from Montréal to Schefferville.
Other outfitters soon came on board. “We ended up collectively bringing 3,000 hunters to Schefferville on a yearly basis. Air Saguenay opened a base there (and ended up keeping Fermont). We acquired another carrier from Wabush (Labrador), and grew the Air Saguenay fleet rapidly, ending up with eight more aircraft."
The company also owned Manicouagan Outfitters and 10 or 12 camps with 400 to 500 American and Canadian annual clients coming through Baie‑Comeau. “As a result, when the fishing season ended in the fall, we were able to assign 4 or 5 of their aircraft to our increasing demand from the growing caribou hunting market. At that point, other outfitters moved to Lake Pau at the Caniapiscau reservoir. So we opened an air base there.”
Remember that risky‑sounding option to hold onto relocation rights? This is where Tremblay exercised his right to relocate, acquiring the village of Caniapiscau for a nominal fee. (The village had been used by hydro project developers in the 1970’s and later been abandoned.)
“Air Saguenay grew again after this with the acquisition of three other carriers and more aircraft as far away as Havre St. Pierre on the Lower North Shore. Today our fleet works out of 12 airbases in Quebec.” When City Express eventually went bankrupt, he and partner Jacques Prud’homme created Nolinor Aviation with a fleet of passenger and cargo aircraft, a main base at Mirabel, and facilities at Dorval (both Montréal area airports).
“We now look after all caribou hunters for Schefferville and Lake Pau regions; we look after 90% of white‑tail deer hunters on Anticosti Island. We carry passengers for Frontiers North Adventures for polar bear watching. We carry salmon fishing clients to the north of the Winnipeg area and we carry many anglers to western Canadian outfitter destinations. We needed an entry point for hunters; Nolinor gave us the hub presence with transfers to Air Saguenay for Club Chambeaux, Club Montagnais, and Nordic Camps where we are one of the partners.”
Every move Tremblay made in his career seems to have had one common ingredient: opportunity to deliver guests to his lodges and outposts in one seamless logistical solution. The control he had over his carrier resources gave him the latitude to assign carrier aircraft according to demand.
“When guests arrive in Montréal, they are welcomed by one of our representatives; when they land in Schefferville, they are greeted again by one of our people. We’re always there supporting our clients at all levels of the hunting experience from when they buy their license, through the service provided by our guides, to the quality of our boats, our engines, our food and lodges. Plus, everything always unfolds on schedule.”
Tremblay claims his organization has welcomed more than 22,000 Canadian and American hunters and more than 6,000 angling guests over the years. “We manage our natural resources in a sustainable manner, therefore our harvest is far from astronomical. We have marketed intensively through FAM trips and we advertise in the best hunting magazines in the US and Canada. We attend more than 40 US and Canada sport shows a year. And while in the past we have focused traditionally on baby boomers, they are now getting older, so we offer enticing rebates for children to bring renewal.”
Increasingly, Tremblay sees fathers bringing their children along: “The baby boomer client numbers went from 3,500 hunters, to between 2,000 and 2,500. We don’t want the numbers to go down further because our infrastructure is there and facility maintenance requirements need to be justified by adequate user levels. That is why our number of aircraft has grown and the number of our lodges decreased (from 6 to 3), so we can better focus on quality. We cover more territory and attractions with our clients, and they feel they are in good hands.”
Jean‑Claude Tremblay has a gift for seeing – and building – opportunities, and he shows no signs of slowing down!
The 65-year-old owner of Club Chambeaux, Air Saguenay, Labrador Air Safari (and co-owner of Nolinor Aviation) just doesn't include the words "slowing down" in his vocabulary. Nowadays, he spends a lot of his time travelling around the world to hunt, fish, meet friends and find out for himself how world market trends will influence the business he has built over four decades.
Jean-Claude Tremblay is not only one of the most successful hunting and fishing outfitters in Canada, he also built the largest bush air carrier organization in North America. What is striking about his story is how this Jonquière‑based entrepreneur grew his business through a series of clever air carrier and outfitting allocation deals that leave you wondering how he managed to weather so much risk, so naturally!
Tremblay had his first taste of the hospitality business in the much‑celebrated Saguenay “brasseries” sector (the Quebec equivalent of English pubs). The man had always loved hunting and fishing, and he bought his first small aircraft in 1967, flying enthusiastically all across northern Quebec. His outdoor advertising business (Enseignes Neon Otis) allowed him to dream of one day owning outposts in exotic places with names like “Croissant Vermeil” and “Lac Margane”; his first stake in the outfitting business (in 1973) involved exclusive access over a 324,000 hectare territory, about 150 km north from Chicoutimi at Homamo Lake.
“It was the ultimate destination at the time for indigenous trout in Quebec,” he notes. “The company was in business with Air Saguenay, and we were getting 1,000 to 1,200 guests a year, 80% of whom were Americans. Air Saguenay looked after their transportation needs.”
In 1980, Tremblay bought Air Saguenay.
As he sifted through his new acquisition’s books, he came across a lease covering the Muguet and Delorme Lake areas, where a large hydro electric project meant the Caniapiscau River would be flooded and a huge reservoir created over much of the area. “We realized this territory would soon be under water, and I opted to hold on to the relocation rights until an opportunity came along.” The wisdom of this risky‑appearing venture became apparent much later.
Meanwhile, Tremblay acquired a Fermont‑based air carrier which opened a corridor to northern Québec and gave him the rights to Club Chambeaux Outfitters, which was then mostly undeveloped. “That’s how we got into hunting. We opened 6 lodges there in 1984, welcoming between 800 and 1,000 clients a year, most of whom flew in from Montréal, on now‑defunct Québécair. By 1987, there were already two or three caribou hunting outfitters in Schefferville.”
But the client volume did not justify a direct Montréal to Schefferville air connection, so Tremblay entered into discussions about moving his Fermont operations to Schefferville in order to increase the local client pool. So, with 1,500 clients, the opportunity to lure a carrier for the Montréal leg looked much more attractive; indeed, City Express eventually agreed to 50 regularly scheduled flights from Montréal to Schefferville.
Other outfitters soon came on board. “We ended up collectively bringing 3,000 hunters to Schefferville on a yearly basis. Air Saguenay opened a base there (and ended up keeping Fermont). We acquired another carrier from Wabush (Labrador), and grew the Air Saguenay fleet rapidly, ending up with eight more aircraft."
The company also owned Manicouagan Outfitters and 10 or 12 camps with 400 to 500 American and Canadian annual clients coming through Baie‑Comeau. “As a result, when the fishing season ended in the fall, we were able to assign 4 or 5 of their aircraft to our increasing demand from the growing caribou hunting market. At that point, other outfitters moved to Lake Pau at the Caniapiscau reservoir. So we opened an air base there.”
Remember that risky‑sounding option to hold onto relocation rights? This is where Tremblay exercised his right to relocate, acquiring the village of Caniapiscau for a nominal fee. (The village had been used by hydro project developers in the 1970’s and later been abandoned.)
“Air Saguenay grew again after this with the acquisition of three other carriers and more aircraft as far away as Havre St. Pierre on the Lower North Shore. Today our fleet works out of 12 airbases in Quebec.” When City Express eventually went bankrupt, he and partner Jacques Prud’homme created Nolinor Aviation with a fleet of passenger and cargo aircraft, a main base at Mirabel, and facilities at Dorval (both Montréal area airports).
“We now look after all caribou hunters for Schefferville and Lake Pau regions; we look after 90% of white‑tail deer hunters on Anticosti Island. We carry passengers for Frontiers North Adventures for polar bear watching. We carry salmon fishing clients to the north of the Winnipeg area and we carry many anglers to western Canadian outfitter destinations. We needed an entry point for hunters; Nolinor gave us the hub presence with transfers to Air Saguenay for Club Chambeaux, Club Montagnais, and Nordic Camps where we are one of the partners.”
Every move Tremblay made in his career seems to have had one common ingredient: opportunity to deliver guests to his lodges and outposts in one seamless logistical solution. The control he had over his carrier resources gave him the latitude to assign carrier aircraft according to demand.
“When guests arrive in Montréal, they are welcomed by one of our representatives; when they land in Schefferville, they are greeted again by one of our people. We’re always there supporting our clients at all levels of the hunting experience from when they buy their license, through the service provided by our guides, to the quality of our boats, our engines, our food and lodges. Plus, everything always unfolds on schedule.”
Tremblay claims his organization has welcomed more than 22,000 Canadian and American hunters and more than 6,000 angling guests over the years. “We manage our natural resources in a sustainable manner, therefore our harvest is far from astronomical. We have marketed intensively through FAM trips and we advertise in the best hunting magazines in the US and Canada. We attend more than 40 US and Canada sport shows a year. And while in the past we have focused traditionally on baby boomers, they are now getting older, so we offer enticing rebates for children to bring renewal.”
Increasingly, Tremblay sees fathers bringing their children along: “The baby boomer client numbers went from 3,500 hunters, to between 2,000 and 2,500. We don’t want the numbers to go down further because our infrastructure is there and facility maintenance requirements need to be justified by adequate user levels. That is why our number of aircraft has grown and the number of our lodges decreased (from 6 to 3), so we can better focus on quality. We cover more territory and attractions with our clients, and they feel they are in good hands.”
Jean‑Claude Tremblay has a gift for seeing – and building – opportunities, and he shows no signs of slowing down!
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