Story
About 30 years ago, Jacques Robitaille created Robitaille & Fils iron ornamental in the Notre-Dame des Laurentides area near Quebec. In those days, the family business was specializing in stove's door, spiral stairs and most of the products that had to do with iron ornemental. When his son, Alain became co-owner, he had the idea to direct the company towards new horizons. He first started to create a fireplace for the outdoor in order to replace the primitive way to secure a fire like the old circle made of rocks. From that moment on, the exterior fireplace in the shape of a pyramid was born. The results of that venture have guided the company toward a new direction.
As a result of the repeated request of our clients to obtain a heating unit for their home, Alain Robitaille started to create his first wood stove. The company that now operates under the name of J.A. ROBY INC, soon after became an undisputed leader in the wood and oil stove production in Quebec. M. Robitaille who is the president today remembers the enthusiasm that animated him in those days where he worked side by side with his father. "I had the ambition of a 20 years old son who wanted to succeed, change the rules and implement new one", he said. "I wanted to redefine the notions of wood heating and create a new approach" he added. In order to achieve his goal, he had to put aside his first line of production and keep his concentration on his new production of stoves and all sort of heating appliances. It was an excellent decision because in those days, an important petroleum crisis was up in North America everywhere. Therefore, the company's wood stove production has reached his maximum capacity for several consecutive years, witch permitted J.A. ROBY to take his well deserved place in the controlled combustion wood stove market.
Furthermore, a new challenge was presented to the company by the Cree community from Chisasibi near LG-2. The request was an enormous wood stove with a controlled combustion. The stove had to be 11 feet of height by 10½ feet of diameter and it had to have the capacity to burn at once two bundles of wood measuring 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet. J.A. ROBY was able to answer that request in only a few weeks and has sent a team in Chissasibi in order to have the installation secured and certified. In addition to that success, a new project was added to the list. The idea was to develop a new heating unit that would be fed by an oil reservoir 24 hours a day. In order to move forward with that project, M. RObitaille and his team have worked to refined a catalyst, technique used by the European, that permits to burn its gas inside the combustion room and therefore increasing the effectiveness of the heating appliance; the results obtained that way have exceeded the company expectation. Consequently, J.A. ROBY INC is proud to become the first in Canada to have managed to insert that technique to his oil heating appliance.
In January 1998, a glaze storm came to paralyzed a major part of Quebec witch was provoking at the same time an enormous demand for the oil stoves. That event itself assured the company a pioneer status in the field of oil heating and at the same time forced it to quit the production of exterior fireplace in order to respond to the increasing demand. In order to face the missing storage place that what created by this phenomenon, , J.A. ROBY had to rent some warehouse nearby his factory in order to proceed to the finishing touch and the packaging of its products.
It is only in 1999 that the business moved in a new built factory in order to better answer to the company's need. The new factory has an increased floor surface for carving, punching, cutting and weldintg its products. Moreover, the painting chamber is modernized and new machineries are added on the production lines.
In the same fashion, M. Robitaille rallies around him a young and dynamic team and together, they redising all of the wood stoves line in order to give it a new boost. The entire new design is well thought over, new colors are created and oven above the stoves are starting to appear. Today, the majority of the wood stoves are offered with or without the oven.
Since the storage space is not a problem anymore, the company take off again with its outdoor fireplace production and come up with new ideas. The creation of a furnace that would warm up a huge space is one of the projects that have always been part of the company's project, but it has always put on hold because it was time consuming. In 2004, the first wood furnace that was able to warm up 3600 square foot and offered an output of 160 000BTU/h made its entrance on the market. Following the clients demand, a second and smaller furnace saw its firts day on the market in 2006. It is also in 2006 the the company puts on the market its first effectiveness wood fireplace with an advance combustion technology, certified EPA.
For several years, we have increased our awareness toward the environment and Greenhouse Gases (GHG). J.A. ROBY is committed to improve its heating appliances by leaning on the last technology that permits to modernize the combustion of its appliances; therefore our appliances are now more ecological with a clean combustion and most of our products are already certified EPA. The company is in a permanent evolution and nothing is left to chance. Our goal is to terminate the conversion of our appliances that are not yet certified EPA and after we still have many other projects to realized... We invite you to follow us in the warmth from the heart of J.A. ROBY!
Québec (Québec) G2N 2C9
Fax: (418) 849-0077