The businessman François Marcil died last week. A discreet, but immense entrepreneur. Rarely have I met someone so fascinating in Quebec inc.
François Marcil is the founder of the Marcil renovation centers. He resumed routes rout. He revived them with instinct, rigor … and a patience of goldsmith!
By dint of flair and work, he built a network of 17 hardware stores. A success of 235 million in turnover. He ended up selling his empire to Rona, in two transactions, in 2005 and in 2014.
The Americans then beheaded the inheritance. The name Marcil disappeared in 2018. But for him, it was not serious. Because he did not build a brand. He built concrete, projects and a vision.
One last message
The morning of his death, I received a message. “I have good memories of you and thank you for your beautiful reports. It was beautiful moments of my life. ” A farewell of disarming delicacy.
These “beautiful reports” that he evokes are those that I have made with him over the years. In Saint-Sauveur or Florida. On his projects, his passions, his gardens. Each time, François opened more than its doors: he opened his heart.
François Marcil during a report in Florida.
Photo Pierre-Olivier Zappa
Coming from a farm in Sainte-Clotilde-de-Châteauguay, he had taken over the hardware of his grandfather with his family. Without a business plan, without MBA, he built an empire. He did not read the economy in books, he felt it.
One day, he told me these words that remained to me: “When everyone announces the recession, it is often that she will not come. The economy never follows noise. The real tremors come in silence. ”
His real estate projects
After the sale in Rona, he turned to real estate. In Saint-Sauveur. In the turquoise islands. And especially in Florida, in Ocean Ridge, where I shot a report with him in March 2020.
He had transformed an old motel there into two dream houses. Foundations poured at 40 feet, with concrete walls and anti-oraragan windows. A bunker thought like a ship. The dream of a man who always saw greater.
But last March, the tone had changed. He wrote to me: “I put all my projects on sale in Ocean Ridge. It really feels like Quebecers and Canadians are spitting in the face. ”
With the backdrop in the backdrop, the climate had turned. He no longer felt welcome in Florida. Even weakened by the disease, he did not give up. Proud, right, he stood up.
A garden like a life
The most striking report remains the one shot in his garden in Saint-Sauveur. A huge field of flowers, sculptures and trails, open to the public, to support Alzheimer’s society.
François Marcil shows us visit his house in Saint-Sauveur in March 2020.
Photo Pierre-Olivier Zappa
A living place, like him, that he has built over thirty years. It all started on a trip to Maine, with a love at first sight for roses. He planted a hundred. Then the garden grows, without having really planned it. Like his business. Like his life.
“What I prefer is always the last thing I did,” he said.
François Marcil advanced without nostalgia, because he always dreamed, even when time was short.