Dutil named president of Manac

VILLE DE SAINT GEORGES, Que. (Jan. 8, 2001) — The Canam Manac Group formally named Charles Dutil president of its Manac semitrailer business effective this month, replacing Gaston Bureau, who is retiring.

Dutil, 35, was previously executive vice-president of Manac, Canada’s largest trailer manufacturer and among the 10 largest in North America. He had wide-ranging responsibilities for sales and marketing, and was responsible for the company’s plant in Orangeville, Ont.

Under his leadership, Dutil said Manac would continue to “fight inch by inch” to build its presence in the United States. The company has a sales office in Freeport, Pa., and dealers or distributors in 15 states, primarily in the industrial Upper Midwest and Northeast.

“We are in the semi-trailer market on a North American scale, and we’re in it for sustained growth over the long term,” Dutil said. “Seven or eight years ago, we were a top-20 player in North America. Now we are a top-10. Where will we be five years from now? Perhaps in the top five. When we look at the numbers that tell us where the industry is, we know our production is down compared to last year, but that our market share has grown. That’s something we can feel good about in hard times.”

Amid an industry-wide sales slump, last October Manac said it was closing its van trailer plant in Orangeville, Ont., until May of this year. It reopened just six weeks later when the company secured three new orders for 900 vans.

Manac also has semitrailer and forestry equipment plants in Ville de Saint Georges, Saint Prime, and Trois-Rivières, Que. It produces flatbeds, vans, forestry semitrailers, lowbeds, chassis, and other specialty units.