Let’s say your business is thriving, but you know you could be doing even better if only you could get a little financial leg up. In the first half of the 20th century, small regional entrepreneurs went knocking at the door of the notary, the doctor or other local notable. They were people with money, and if they knew you they might be prepared to lend you some.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Lassonde was experiencing ever more rapid growth. A number of new projects were in the works, such as those involving apple juice production, and management was exploring options for expansion. It was during this decade that they set up a financial department and invested in the acquisition of new equipment.

The first major purchase was a boiler. “One day, Willie Lassonde said to me, ‘We’re going to go see Dussault the notary,” related Jean-Paul Barré, former vice-president of Lassonde & Sons. He had heard of the Industrial Development Bank and the services it offered businesses seeking to expand. Why not contact them?

Lassonde’s management team returned from that business meeting with the assurance that the new boiler could be financed through the Industrial Development Bank (which became the Federal Business Development Bank in the 1970s and is now the Business Development Bank of Canada). Thus it was that 60 years ago, Dussault the notary lost a client, but Lassonde found a major new ally!

Next column: An unexpected opportunity…