December 15, 2017 – Louis Garneau’s stellar career as both a top-level rider and a savvy businessman have propelled him to the top of the world of cycling, politics and business. His Canadian-based sportswear company, now celebrating its 30th anniversary, and the man who founded it, bear the same name and it is often difficult to separate the two. In 2003, the company added a suffix to become Louis Garneau Sports (LGS). We interviewed Garneau by telephone in late December. Other parts of his amazing story are taken from a book about both the man and his company titled Never Give Up, written by Henri Marineau and last revised in 2012.

Garneau, the man, was born in 1958 and became an accomplished road and track cyclist in his day, finishing his cycling career at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. By then, Garneau was already busy with his own sportswear company and he grew it into the largest manufacturer of cycling accessories worldwide, selling products in 45 countries. Amazingly, he accomplished all of this with no formal business training, relying instead on his B.A. in visual arts and training as an athlete to guide him through the rigours of business life. Today he is the president and designer at LGS.

The innovative company began in 1983 and today employs some 425 workers worldwide, including 225 in Canada, 100 in the U.S., 75 in Mexico, 8 in China and a few others elsewhere. Headquartered in the Quebec City suburb of Saint-Augustin, the company counts four divisions worldwide. Apart from cycling accessories (clothing, helmets, etc) for individuals and teams, LGS also markets apparel to triathletes and cross-country skiers. The company is now expanding into nutrition products and recently announced a partnership with Leclerc Group, and also sells a Louis Garneau line of bikes in Canada.

International sponsorships include French-based Team Europcar and events such as the Granfondo Garneau Florida held in March and the Garneau-Cascades Granfondo in August. Canadian team sponsorships include a UCI Continental road team Garneau-Québecor and other road cycling teams in B.C., Ontario and the Maritimes, together with a mountain bike team in Quebec. A black mark in LGS history occurred when two riders from its Garneau-Club Chaussures-Norton Rose road team tested positive for doping in 2011.

LGS is a privately held company and as such is not required to report its financial data, but estimates of company revenues range from $30 to $50 million. In 2010, it became a sponsor for Europcar, taking the company to a higher level with considerable international exposure garnered from the team competing at the Tour de France.

Garneau gives considerable credit to his wife of 30 years, Monique Arsenault, in helping to build up the company to what it is today. In the mid-1980s, she worked full days at the fledgling sportswear manufacturer before going out to work a full shift as a nurse. In those early days, the married couple survived essentially on her salary. And the Garneau family garage was the company centre of operations.

He fondly remembers their first order of cycling jerseys and shorts delivered “to four members of the 1984 Canadian cycling team: Steve Bauer, Pierre Harvey, Alain Masson and myself.” Bauer won silver in the RR at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, while LG finished 33rd in that event.

The “family” seems intertwined with the LGS story far beyond the company’s start in his father’s garage years ago. Monique left her working career to look after the three Garneau children, William, Edouard and Victoria. And now Garneau is looking ahead to the day, perhaps in 10 years’ time, when his prodigies will take over the company. “I would like some day to be a full-time artist,” says Louis, speaking of his children taking over.

It is common for people who come from a family tradition in business to do well in commerce. But Garneau’s father, Paul, worked as a policeman in Quebec City and apparently once gave himself a ticket for inadvertently passing through a red light. It seems that Paul passed on other attributes to his now-famous son, who declared, “I earned my MBA in cycling.”

An essential question is whether Garneau is a businessman, an artist or an athlete, or to what extent he is all three. Intriguingly, when asked that question recently, he responded that he is “half artist and half businessman” without even mentioning the athlete. But then, perhaps he sees little difference between business and sport…

During a 2004 interview, Garneau credited much of his success in business to his training as an athlete. “In sports, as in business, victory is obtained at the cost of effort. I suffered in my career before becoming a champion. Competitive sport taught me [the importance of] rigour, discipline, team effort, tenacity [and] how to manage stress. And [it taught me to] never to give up in spite of whatever obstacles lie ahead.”

In his book Never Give Up, Garneau sees himself more as a team captain than a cyclist. “I give my teammates hope, don’t turn against them when things are not going well, inform them, and show them the advantage of perseverance.” But if business is like sports, cycling is the easier contest. “A cyclist trains perhaps 25 hours a week. In business, it’s more like 70 hours. In business, there is no finish line and it’s 24/7. I try to manage, that’s why I do art.”

But today, at age 54, Garneau looks slender and fit. He raced one 50km stage at the Mardis Lachine crits in 2010, finishing in the pack against cyclists half his age. “My father was an old man at 55 years old,” he muses. “I am now 54 and feel great. I listen to the same music as my kids and can still race. Maybe I will go back to the nationals someday as a master. I want to beat Giuseppe Marinoni’s [a Montreal-based former racer and bike manufacturer] world speed record for age 75 and set another record when I’m 100!”

Cycling remains a European-centred sport and looking back in time at the challenges, few Canadian riders had gained international repute by the 1980s –– Garneau was among the first to “hop over the pond” and race in Europe. Similarly, a cycling apparel company based in Quebec City is handicapped by distance from the market, potential trade barriers entering either the European or American markets, and personnel in Europe speak[ing] a different language than most of North America. “St. Augustin is not a good place from which to view the market,” he admits. And yet, despite all of the odds, he made LGS a success.

In 2011, on the other side of the Atlantic, Europcar’s Thomas Voeckler from France led the Tour de France for nine stages, finishing fourth overall. His teammate, Pierre Rolland, picked up the young rider classification. LGS personnel worked feverishly in Quebec City to prepare lightweight and colour-appropriate helmets and clothing for the presentations on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. To overcome the obstacles of geography, LG personally delivered the goods to Europcar.

Often in the limelight, Garneau famously posed for a photo with Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, putting his arm over her shoulder. Although touching the queen was strictly prohibited by Royal protocol, Garneau explains that she approached him and he simply asked to have a souvenir photograph taken. “As I’m quite a bit taller than she is, I leaned down a little for the pose, I placed my hand on her shoulder as I would have done for anyone else under the circumstances. The Queen showed no signs of being disturbed or offended as shown by her friendly smile in the photo.” Garneau also relates that the Queen was talking to him about his business –– in perfect French. This apparently unintentional gaffe earned Garneau considerable press, especially in the U.K.

The year 2013 will see LGS celebrate its 30th anniversary. Garneau’s eldest son William, 22, will graduate with an MBA from a business school in Vermont, “and wants to become the product manager with nutrition.” The company is developing a new distribution centre in Newport, VT. Also this year, the world will witness the 100th anniversary of the TdF. Plans include making LGS the place “to find the best bike, best gear, best helmet and best nutrition.” Beyond that, he promises “we will announce a big project in the next few months.”

One of Garneau’s challenges today is transferring control of the company to his three offspring, William, Edouard and Victoria. “Only 30% of companies are carried on by the second generation and only some 10% of companies are still run by the family after two generations,” mentions Garneau. Edouard is also enrolled in business school in Vermont. Victoria, the youngest, is still in high school as of this writing, but seems to have inherited her father’s artistic traits. “I’m going to play with the 30%,” he declares. And Garneau is no stranger to playing against the odds.