Émilie St-Laurent

Marketing director
Sports DRC
As a kid, one of Émilie St-Laurent ‘s favorite game was to pretend to work in a store. Her first job was to work in her uncle and aunt’s cheese shop where she made lots and lots of ice cream cones during the summer. When she was 17, she left for Montréal to study fashion merchandising and marketing at HEC Montréal. After working in the fashion industry for a few years, she decided to return home. She was 26. As the saying goes, “you can take the girl out of the Lac Saint-Jean, but you can’t get the Lac out of the girl”. When she returned, Émilie had the opportunity to support small and medium-sized businesses from the Saguenay-Lac-Sain-Jean region with their international business development. In 2010, she launched her own business, Orange & Coco, a brand of children accessories made here in Québec. Although most of her sales were made online, her products were available in 40 shops in the province. In 2016, she sold Orange & Coco (still operating), so she could focus on a new project: becoming co-owner of the Sports DRC recreational vehicle dealer. Since 1972, Sports DRC has been providing its customers with fun times and adrenaline rushes by selling brands like BRP Ski-Doo, Can-Am, Sea-Doo, Evinrude, Princecraft, Mercury and Chaparral. The addition of Émilie St-Laurent to the company marked the digital shift for the dealer. The company made significant investments in the Web with the launch of a complete transactional site, a new visual identity and the creation of an online community with whom the Sports DRC team connects on a daily basis. The goal is simple: to share the team’s passion and experience on various Web platforms. All these initiatives allowed the company to consolidate its position as a leader on its market and to experience significant growth. For Émilie, the Web is the key for independent dealers who want to strengthen their position and seduce new customers.