There wasn’t just one winner during the stage snapped by Hugo Houle in tears and the heatwave of the Tour de France. Its sponsor, Quebec company Premier Tech, can also open the champagne.
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“It’s really exciting what’s happening here,” admits the boss, Jean Bélanger, in an interview with Le Journal.
In the last few hours, the name of the multinational company from Rivière-du-Loup, prominently displayed on the runner’s jersey, has been appearing in search engines everywhere.
Beef success on the web
“The number of visits to our websites, Facebook, Instagram, all our social media has exploded. It’s a slope as steep as the one Hugo climbed yesterday to get the win,” jokes the leader, who will be in Paris to welcome Houle to the finish of the Grande Boucle.
However, the effects are difficult to calculate. Will the agricultural and horticultural products company seek further orders? Time will tell, but when it comes to visibility, Premier Tech fills up.
“The Tour de France is held in more than 130 countries. There are at least 30 countries broadcasting it live. From 4-5-6 hours live TV it’s really huge in terms of visibility. »
good investment
Jean Belanger, CEO of Premier Tech
Without wanting to reveal the amount of the sponsorship, Mr. Bélanger is sure that the game is worth the candle.
“That’s a significant amount. Compare that to advertising on hockey boards or a baseball game wall, and you get a good return on investment,” he believes.
immediate friendship
But for Premier Tech, cycling is an affair of the heart. A passion for sponsorship.
The company has been investing in the development of cyclists in Quebec for 27 years, then the company quietly joined the grand tour and the world elite.
“When I speak to my people, I tell them: we’re going to make one thing clear, I love cycling, it doesn’t hurt our sponsorship, but if I were a Nascar fan we wouldn’t sponsor this sport. , because it doesn’t fit our values and what we want to convey as a message. But here is the opportunity of the thief,” explains Mr. Bélanger.
The same applies to the connection with Hugo Houle, which flows from the source, the leader admits.
“We both had an instant friendship. He comes home regularly. In the next few days I will be on vacation and Hugo will come to us with the children, we will ride for 4-5 days. We have a lot of respect for each other,” says Bélanger.
The two men met when Premier Tech funded training in Astana. After a somewhat stormy split from the Kazakh team, Houle remained in the fold of Premier Tech, which merged with Israel Start-up Nation, owned by Montreal billionaire Sylvan Adams (see further text below).
“We chose cycling because it’s an international sport, we wanted to find a sport that brings everyone together, free and democratic, a family sport to practice with friends,” he concludes.
A Quebec billionaire among the team’s builders
Don’t be fooled by the name of Hugo Houle’s team, Israel-Premier Tech: This is primarily a Quebec and Canadian affair.
“We have all the major Canadian players, both in terms of staff and drivers. We have five of the six Canadian riders, a sports director from here [l’ancien coureur Steve Bauer], Performance Director, Chief Mechanic. It’s really a Canadian team,” said team co-owner Jean Bélanger in an interview with Le Journal.
bike enthusiast
Sylvan Adams, Quebec billionaire
The latter, who runs the Quebec multinational Premier Tech, joined forces with another Quebecer, billionaire Sylvan Adams, a keen cyclist who was then running the Israel Start-up Nation team.
“Sylvan chose the name Israel because he wants to promote cycling there and in the Middle East. He also has dual Canadian and Israeli citizenship,” explains Bélanger.
Sylvan Adams is the son of Marcel Adams, the real estate magnate who built Quebec’s first shopping mall, La Canardière. Then, a few years later, it was he who built the Galeries de la Capitale.
Marcel Adams passed away in 2020 at the venerable age of 100. Despite his presence in the list of Forbes billionaires, he led a discreet life, Le Journal recalled two years ago.
great philanthropist
Sylvan Adams succeeded his father at the helm of the family business Développements Iberville. However, he got into trouble with the tax authorities. He has lived in Israel for five years.
Last June, Adams, who is also recognized as a philanthropist, paid $2 million towards the renewal of Laval University’s Graduate School of International Studies.
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