Steve received years ago. “How do we do things better each time for our customers, our employees? It’s about developing an impactful experience,” he said recently at company headquarters in Drummondville, Quebec, about 108 km—roughly 65 miles—northeast of Montreal. “When we look to innovate, that’s what we strive for.” Whether that is improved safety, fuel economy,


driver visibility, vehicle handling or a variety of engine offerings and benefits. Spend five minutes with the Gi- rardin and his quiet intensity belies a desire to remain at the cutting edge, yet also remain cognizant of the in- dustry’s true needs, a value and insight passed down to him by the family patriarch and lived by all 400 plant employees every day. He also innately and intimately respects the process because it’s in his blood to do so.


While this year Girardin Minibus celebrates its 50th anniversary, the company’s automotive roots reach back to at least 1935, when Steve’s grandfa- ther, Lionel, opened a used-car dealership and repair business next to his own father’s blacksmith shop in Saint-Felix-de-Kingsey, just down the road from the company’s current headquarters.


56 School Transportation News • JULY 2016


Ever the innovator and long-fascinated with auto- mobiles, Lionel heard opportunity knocking with the increased consumer appetite for passenger cars in the 1950s. He built a service station and another, and later began selling used cars with brother Rénald before becoming a Dodge DeSoto dealer. Tat same decade, Lionel was awarded one of


Quebec’s first student transportation contracts, as rural students increasingly needed a way to get from their homes in the country to new schools being built in town. By 1958, he bought an old bus at a local scrap yard that he and his sons, André, Steve’s dad, and Marcel, helped him paint yellow. Within a few years, Lionel obtained franchises to sell Wayne and Superior school buses. Te year 1966 was very pivotal for the Girardin


family. Lionel and his sons uprooted the company from St-Félix-de-Kingsey to Drummondville, where it is located today, and ceased car sales to focus solely on buses. All in the same year, Girardin began its relation- ship with Blue Bird and began converting small school buses, and voila…Girardin Minibus. Te foundation for Micro Bird, was born.


Lionel passed away in 1972, but the company


Before and after: An aerial shot of the Micro Bird plant, circa 1991 (left), and a recent image that reflects the growth at Girardin.


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