As trade clouds loom, departing BRP CEO says Ski-Doo maker’s future lies overseas

Jose Boisjoli, president and chief executive officer of BRP Inc., poses in his office in Valcourt, Que., on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

MONTREAL — The call came on a Monday.

In Salt Lake City in August 2022, BRP Inc. chief executive José Boisjoli was hosting his first in-person gathering with dealership owners since the COVID-19 pandemic, when the nightmare of every CEO became reality: a cyberattack.

“We had 3,500 people, dealers coming from everywhere,” Boisjoli recalled in a video chat ahead of his retirement at the end of this month.

Within hours, he had ordered the shutdown of all 12 BRP factories along with every corporate computer in a crisis that paralyzed the company and consumed him for two weeks before a gradual return to production of Ski-Doos, Sea-Doos and all-terrain vehicles.

“It affects the customers who are waiting for the product ... It affects your dealers, it affects your suppliers because they cannot ship. It affects the employees — they want to know when they’ll be back to work,” he said. “I still feel the pain when I talk about this.”

Guided by “good governance” and an on-call cybersecurity consultant, the ramp-up saw factories reopen over a period of nearly two months.

“It was two meetings a day — one in the morning, one at the end of the day — every single day, seven days a week,” Boisjoli said, noting that the consultant conducted a drawn-out back-and-forth with the cybercriminal group.

“Obviously we never disclosed, but I can tell you we didn’t pay the ransom.”

It marked the single biggest challenge of Boisjoli’s 22 years at the helm of the powersports company — tougher than the Great Recession, COVID-19 pandemic or the current cost-of-living crisis, he said.

Today, new hurdles loom. Those include a smaller appetite for new orders from dealers, limited growth potential for its oldest vehicle types and electrification of its product lines. But by far the biggest is the massive question mark dangling over the North American free trade pact, up for renegotiation this year.

The board has named Denis Le Vot, a former top executive at French carmaker Renault Group, to helm the Sea-Doo manufacturer starting Sunday and steer it through an ongoing trade war.

Boisjoli, 68, says BRP’s future lies farther afield in areas such as Brazil, Finland, the Middle East and Asia, with a focus on all-terrain vehicles and side-by-sides rather than its longtime staple of motor sleds.

BRP, based in Valcourt, Que., accounts for 20 per cent of the global ATV market and about 27 per cent for side-by-sides, he said. That means there’s room to grow.

In China, BRP has built its foothold over a decade and a half in a bid to tap into a rising middle class.

“We cannot ignore that,” he said. “To be honest, the challenge in Asia — not only China, but in Asia — is to develop the market; it’s not to gain share.”

From Valcourt to Dubai

An engineer by training, Boisjoli piloted BRP from a struggling powersports outfit spun off from Bombardier Inc. in 2003 into a brand with worldwide reach that seized on growing demand for off-road vehicles, snowmobiles and personal watercraft.

Under his tenure, the stand-alone organization, which has known no other CEO, tripled its revenue and market share so that one in every three powersports products sold across the globe bears the BRP logo, according to the company.

Boisjoli — a farmboy who grew up a half-hour’s drive from Valcourt, received his first snowmobile at age 10 and joined Bombardier in 1989 — shepherded BRP through its initial public offering in 2013 and more than doubled its head count to 16,500 employees over the past decade.

A close connection to the product and its dealers has been key to its success, experts say.

“He was riding his products on the weekends. He knew what he was talking about,” said Stifel analyst Martin Landry.

“That earned him a lot of respect. He was able to speak the same language as the dealers.”

Supposedly in wind-down mode, Boisjoli took a final whirlwind trip in mid-January to test products and showcase vehicles to clients in Austria, Finland and the United Arab Emirates.

“Wednesday I was in Finland riding a snowmobile at -20 C. I arrived in Dubai Thursday. Friday morning, we’re riding side-by-sides in the desert at plus-25,” he told The Canadian Press last week.

A focus on quality and innovation marks another BRP selling point.

“They were late (getting into) ATVs and side-by-sides. Yamaha and Polaris controlled the market. But when they launch a line, they are definitely putting out good quality products,” said Chantal Contant, who co-owns five powersports dealerships in the Montreal area.

Four out of five of her customers are repeat clients, so reliability is essential.

Boisjoli’s accessibility and passion for the products have fostered loyalty among both dealers and customers.

“He calls us every month or two just to stay in touch,” said Contant, whose dealerships are among the 2,700 that now sell across 130 countries — both numbers have roughly doubled in the past two decades.

Trade winds blowing

Over the past year, the return of Donald Trump as well as a consumer pullback have threatened that legacy of growth.

Uncertainty hangs over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. For now, BRP’s shipments within North America are USMCA-compliant and therefore tariff-free, but a collapse of the deal or a sweeping tariff hike would do serious damage to the company’s bottom line.

While a majority of its revenue stems from the U.S., 70 per cent of total production happens in Mexico or Canada — where Ski-Doos and some of its Can-Am three-wheelers roll off the line.

BRP took a $50-million hit last year due to U.S. tariffs on overseas imports, Boisjoli said, though that amounts to less than one per cent of revenues that are projected to top $8.1 billion.

The company has overcome roadblocks before.

Soon after starting to diversify BRP beyond its three product lines — snowmobiles, Sea-Doos and an unprofitable ATV business — the 2008-09 financial crisis struck, prompting consumers to reel in spending. In 2020, the pandemic presented an unprecedented hurdle in the form of plant and retail shutdowns followed by supply chain bottlenecks.

For a globe-trotting CEO who has more than tripled the company’s market capitalization to nearly $8 billion since it went public 13 years ago, Boisjoli evinces humility — particularly about its marine segment.

Last April, BRP announced a pair of deals to sell the bulk of its boat business after snapping up three manufacturers in 2018 and 2019. Telwater, Alumacraft and Triton Industries drained $275.7 million from BRP’s coffers in 2024 alone.

“I still believe we had a good strategy, but I think the timing was so-so and we didn’t execute well,” Boisjoli said.

When the company set out to add an electric option to all of its vehicle types a half-decade ago, “the hype was super-high” amid generous subsidies for buyers and manufacturers, he said.

So far, snowmobiles, motorcycles and, as of last summer, ATVs now have electric models, none of which are expected to see big earnings growth for at least three or four years, he said.

“It’s not the best investment we’ve done, but I think we need to stick to it because it brings different customers, and we’re learning about the technology and we know that we can improve it.”

Meanwhile, consumers have pulled back from pricey recreational purchases in recent years.

But Boisjoli sees his customers’ average household income — US$175,000 versus US$115,000 just six years ago — as insulation from the brunt of any economic slowdown.

“I’m not worried about the future,” smiled Boisjoli, who said he and his wife’s plan for the next few months is simply to “live without any schedule” for the first time in decades.

And to go for a few rips on a BRP snowmobile.

“This is the part of the job that I like the most.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2026.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press