After renovating its product development center a couple years ago, BRP pledged to invest $118 million into its Valcourt manufacturing activities. “Three years later, we have committed 80% of the total budget to modernizing our manufacturing facility,” added Bisjoli. “This is key to strengthening Valcourt’s strategic role as the center of expertise for design, research, development and manufacturing for all BRP activities worldwide.” Money well spent! Rather than a standard assembly line, the plant features self-propelled carts that connect like a miniature railroad as the engine for a sled or a Spyder drives itself to meet up with another car containing the tunnel/ chassis. Unlike a train however, these cars are not on rails. If there is an issue at any point in the assembly process, the cart can drive itself to a QC area without stopping the entire line. Instead of having to run two factories, BRP can now produce snowmobiles and 3-wheel vehicles on the same production line and produce them quicker, and personalize them… we saw several totally different variations of an 800cc sled running down the line simultaneously. This flexibility makes the line extremely efficient and change overs from Spyder to Ski-Doos can be done over a weekend if needed.
Ribbon Cutting The dedication of BRP’s ultramodern manufacturing facility in late August followed hot on the heels of launching BRP’s new North American Hub deep in the heart of Texas in the middle of July. “Sales, marketing and dealer network development, will be the three primary functions for our Plano facility,” said BRP Senior VP and general manager of global retail and services, Sandy Scullion. At nearly 17,000 sq./ft, the Texas hub will handle about 140 employees. However that was dwarfed by an expansion plan back home in Canada. “Valcourt has always been at the heart of BRP’s innovation,” said José Boisjoli, President and CEO. “Modernizing the plant was critical to ensuring its efficiency. It’s the combination of small-town support with world class know-how that puts us in such a unique position: updating our facilities with a major investment like this means we are not only providing state-of-the-art tools and technologies to our local workers, but we are being more efficient, more productive and more innovative than ever.” At least that is what we think he said… Dealernews was the only anglophone among the media on hand for the dedication and our French is admittedly rusty.
BRP Club
A full house at the BRP Club in Denver witnessed no less than five new Can-Am off-road offerings, in addition to the Sea-Doo FISH PRO prototype and the world premiere of the Ryker from Can-Am On Road (formerly Spyder). More than 2,400 people joined the Club, including staff and media, 794 dealers from North America and 930+ dealers total, representing 55 countries.
“We are still focused on leveraging innovation and accessibility to bring BRP’s fun and excitement to more riders than ever before,” said BRP President & CEO José, living up to the promise to deliver a new side-by-side every six months from 2015 through 2020. The new Maverick Sport MAX DPS 1000R is the seventh vehicle introduced since that time.
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“The new Can-Am Maverick Sport MAX vehicle is designed for performance-driving enthusiasts who enjoy conquering off-road challenges alongside their friends and family,” said Bernard Guy, BRP Senior VP Global Product Strategy. “We continue to advance Can-Am ownership by equipping our Continued on page 62