Burel Industries
Burel Industries was a Quebec pencil company the opened just a few years after the Berol factory in Drummondville stopped producing pencils. The new factory opened in late 1995 in Notre-Dame du Bon-Conseil, Quebec not far from the old Berol factory. Many of the people who worked there were previous employees of Berol. I'm not sure how long the company existed. They company made pencils as well as coloured pencils. Names of pencils that Burel produced include Graph, Cashmere, Virus, and Condor. They also produced Iris coloured pencils.
There appears to have been trademark issues with Berol Canada Inc. The names of these two companies were increadibly similar. Burel filed for a trademark in July 1995. By August 1996, there was an opposition filed by Berol. By March of 1998, the trademark was abandoned. I don't know if the company ceased to exist or if they continued on for a short time making unbranded pencils. It does not look like the company existed for very long past 1998.
There appears to have been trademark issues with Berol Canada Inc. The names of these two companies were increadibly similar. Burel filed for a trademark in July 1995. By August 1996, there was an opposition filed by Berol. By March of 1998, the trademark was abandoned. I don't know if the company ceased to exist or if they continued on for a short time making unbranded pencils. It does not look like the company existed for very long past 1998.
Burel B&B HB
The pencil below was probably made for the Quebec educational supply company Brault & Bouthillier. It is an untipped hexagonal pencil with a natural finish.
Burel Condor 165 HB
Burell Ecolier HB
These pencils are stamped "Burell" vice "Burel". It also appears as if the additional L was added on, it is not quite in line with the other letters. It seems there is a story to tell here. Did Burel change its name? Perhaps Berol complained that Burel was a bit too close.
Burel Elite HB
This pencil isn't stamped with the Burel name but has the very identifiable Burel arrow logo. This pencil may have been during trademark opposition with Berol.
Burel Graph 155
Burel Iris Coloured Pencils
Burel Iris colored pencils are quite similar to the Berol Canadiana pencils that were produced in the late 1980s. The set of 8 came in a box while larger sets of 12 and 24 came in a vinyl pouch.
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The pencils pictured below were generously donated by JiaJia. Thanks!
In the News
La Tribune, 11 May 1995 page B6
A factory of pencils sets up at Notre-Dame du Bon-Conseil
A new wood pencil factory is being set up in Drummond, specifically at Notre-Dame du Bon-Conseil, about 20 kilometers east of the city.
These are Burel Industries, formed by the association of MM. Yvon Brûlé and Yvon Champagne, who are moving into a vacant building in the Caisse populaire facade, on Bon-Conseil's main street. The tests should be done towards the mid-June and the production begin during the summer.
"It was, in my idea, unthinkable to lose 65 years of expertise in writing equipment," says Yvon Brûlé, who recalls having worked for many years at the Bérol plant in Drummondville, which closed production in the spring of 1992, losing 58 direct jobs in Drummond. Owned by an American family, the company transferred its production to its Shelbyville, Tennessee, facility and has kept a portion of its Drummondville plant on Janelle Street as a warehouse.
For Mr. Brûlé, who acted as director of production at Bérol (formerly Eagle Pencil and Eagle North-Rite), the quality of the products of his former business has greatly diminished since the closure of the Drummondville production line.
"What we will do at Bon-Conseil is very high quality products," he says, noting that if, in the beginning, it is the wood pencils that will be manufactured, Burel Industries does not exclude to start making pens, markers, erasers, etc.
To begin, the company limits itself to its production of pencils with three specific niches: the institutional product (Cégeps for example), the promotional one (the companies which make put their name) and the mass production, sold in big stores, with the objective of serving Quebec first and then Canada as a whole.
The launch of the new company is based on market research, marketing and feasibility, which tells Mr. Brûlé that he has every chance of success on his side, by repatriating former employees of the Bérol and injecting new ideas and especially quality into new products.
A factory of pencils sets up at Notre-Dame du Bon-Conseil
A new wood pencil factory is being set up in Drummond, specifically at Notre-Dame du Bon-Conseil, about 20 kilometers east of the city.
These are Burel Industries, formed by the association of MM. Yvon Brûlé and Yvon Champagne, who are moving into a vacant building in the Caisse populaire facade, on Bon-Conseil's main street. The tests should be done towards the mid-June and the production begin during the summer.
"It was, in my idea, unthinkable to lose 65 years of expertise in writing equipment," says Yvon Brûlé, who recalls having worked for many years at the Bérol plant in Drummondville, which closed production in the spring of 1992, losing 58 direct jobs in Drummond. Owned by an American family, the company transferred its production to its Shelbyville, Tennessee, facility and has kept a portion of its Drummondville plant on Janelle Street as a warehouse.
For Mr. Brûlé, who acted as director of production at Bérol (formerly Eagle Pencil and Eagle North-Rite), the quality of the products of his former business has greatly diminished since the closure of the Drummondville production line.
"What we will do at Bon-Conseil is very high quality products," he says, noting that if, in the beginning, it is the wood pencils that will be manufactured, Burel Industries does not exclude to start making pens, markers, erasers, etc.
To begin, the company limits itself to its production of pencils with three specific niches: the institutional product (Cégeps for example), the promotional one (the companies which make put their name) and the mass production, sold in big stores, with the objective of serving Quebec first and then Canada as a whole.
The launch of the new company is based on market research, marketing and feasibility, which tells Mr. Brûlé that he has every chance of success on his side, by repatriating former employees of the Bérol and injecting new ideas and especially quality into new products.
La Tribune, 23 March 1996, page 13
Burel takes over the flambleau for the production of pencils
Bérol, the previous manufacturer in Drummondville, closed in 1990
When the Bérol factory in Drummondville ceased all production after 70 years in the industrial park, Yvon Brûlé, the director of production who was laid off, would have been able to cash his unemployment insurance and complain, like everyone else, that everything goes wrong in the economy.
That's not what he did: he rolled up his sleeves, found associates and just launched, with his partner Yvon Champagne, the only Canadian mine and color pencil factory, Burel à Notre -Dame-du-Bon-Conseil, about one-hundred miles east of Drummondville.
And it works, very strong even. "We produce 75,000 pencils a day now, at the end of April, 150,000 when we reach our cruising point," he says, not surprised at all to see such a demand, based on quality and quality. The excellence of the products it manufactures with a dozen employees and has nearly two years of preparations.
Assisted on all sides by the financial, political, institutional, Burel takes off in large, while its production began slowly last September.
Distribution
Distributed by numerous chains of office and consumer goods (Maxi, Provigo, Boulevard, Pilon, Bureaulab, ADP, Sopa et Uniprix), Burel pencils are carving out an enviable position on the market under the brand names Graph, Cashmere, Virus, Condor and Iris. In addition, Burel manufactures pens and promotional pencils, customized to the name of the companies.
"You are a great example of entrepreneurship," says the Mayor of Drummondville and President of the Economic Development Corporation. Francine Ruest-Juiras. "Rather than giving up at Bérol's firm, you've watched the market and launched your company with all the knowledge," she adds.
To date, Burel has created 12 new jobs and is benefiting from the support of the Government of Quebec, which, through its programs, is injecting $ 55,000 into the company, which required investments of $1.2 million to date
And if the response of the public to these articles of writing is as good as the promoters believe, it will enlarge the factory of the Industrial Street in Bon-Conseil, to hire staff, which is not without pleasure to the mayor of the locality, Martin Boisvert, for whom the arrival of this company is greeted with the greatest joy.
Recall that the Bérol factory, successively bearing the names Eagle Pencil, Eagle North-Rite and Bérol, occupied from 1920 to 1990 two factories, the first at the corner of Saint-Jean and Schools and the second, which still exists as a warehouse, at the corner of Cormier and Janelle.
Burel takes over the flambleau for the production of pencils
Bérol, the previous manufacturer in Drummondville, closed in 1990
When the Bérol factory in Drummondville ceased all production after 70 years in the industrial park, Yvon Brûlé, the director of production who was laid off, would have been able to cash his unemployment insurance and complain, like everyone else, that everything goes wrong in the economy.
That's not what he did: he rolled up his sleeves, found associates and just launched, with his partner Yvon Champagne, the only Canadian mine and color pencil factory, Burel à Notre -Dame-du-Bon-Conseil, about one-hundred miles east of Drummondville.
And it works, very strong even. "We produce 75,000 pencils a day now, at the end of April, 150,000 when we reach our cruising point," he says, not surprised at all to see such a demand, based on quality and quality. The excellence of the products it manufactures with a dozen employees and has nearly two years of preparations.
Assisted on all sides by the financial, political, institutional, Burel takes off in large, while its production began slowly last September.
Distribution
Distributed by numerous chains of office and consumer goods (Maxi, Provigo, Boulevard, Pilon, Bureaulab, ADP, Sopa et Uniprix), Burel pencils are carving out an enviable position on the market under the brand names Graph, Cashmere, Virus, Condor and Iris. In addition, Burel manufactures pens and promotional pencils, customized to the name of the companies.
"You are a great example of entrepreneurship," says the Mayor of Drummondville and President of the Economic Development Corporation. Francine Ruest-Juiras. "Rather than giving up at Bérol's firm, you've watched the market and launched your company with all the knowledge," she adds.
To date, Burel has created 12 new jobs and is benefiting from the support of the Government of Quebec, which, through its programs, is injecting $ 55,000 into the company, which required investments of $1.2 million to date
And if the response of the public to these articles of writing is as good as the promoters believe, it will enlarge the factory of the Industrial Street in Bon-Conseil, to hire staff, which is not without pleasure to the mayor of the locality, Martin Boisvert, for whom the arrival of this company is greeted with the greatest joy.
Recall that the Bérol factory, successively bearing the names Eagle Pencil, Eagle North-Rite and Bérol, occupied from 1920 to 1990 two factories, the first at the corner of Saint-Jean and Schools and the second, which still exists as a warehouse, at the corner of Cormier and Janelle.
