Saint-Fidèle

The parish of Saint-Fidèle was erected on the canonical plan on June 10, 1850, its first resident priest was granted to the population on September 17, 1855 and the municipality of Saint-Fidèle-de Mount Murray was erected on the civil plane on July 1, 1855. The first settler to settle there in 1834 was Louis Dallaire. The first chapel of Saint-Fidèle was blessed by the parish priest Augustin Beaudry of La Malbaie, in 1853. It was enlarged in 1856, but it quickly became too small. Louis Dallaire decided to give his land to build the village church. The beginning of the construction was in 1872 to be finalized in 1883. The municipality of Saint-Fidèle had as neighborhood the villages of Cap-à-l'Aigle, Black River (Saint-Siméon) and Rivière-aux- Ducks (Baie Sainte-Catherine) who formed municipalities afterwards.[1]

The term Saint-Fidèle refers to Fidèle de Sigmaringen.

In 1902, a cheese factory was added to the public establishments of Saint-Fidèle. In order to be able to build it, the owner, Mr. Wilfrid Bhérer, had bought a piece of land from Gracieuse Bhérer. This land was located at the entrance of rang Saint-Paul.

In 1905, Mr. Joseph Bhérer took possession of the cheese factory. From May to November, this man, without the help of anyone, took care of running his business. In those days, the method of cheese making required more manual work, and the possibilities of preserving this dairy product in cold rooms much less sophisticated than those of today entailed a certain risk. In 1922 Mr. Bhérer built a new factory in which he could also make butter until 1929. In order to improve the conditions of manufacture, he had to develop in Saint-Fidèle a creamery equipped with modern equipment. From this year, its production became financially profitable. In 1933, Mr. Joseph Bhérer dies and it is his daughter, Blanche Bhérer, married to Joseph Tremblay, who becomes the owner of the company.

From 1929 to 1945, we did not use production techniques as developed as today, but it still met the needs of the time. There was no electricity, so the butter churn worked from a steam engine. In the winter, ice was cut on the lakes and used to cool the cream during the summer season. The company's products were distributed in the vicinity of Saint-Fidèle. In summer, trucks were used, while in winter, horses were returned, and a little later, snow mobiles were used.

A new technology appeared in 1946, the electrification of the village. This is the year that the pasteurization of cream began.

In 1962, the Tremblay bought the Fromagerie Savard of Baie-Sainte-Catherine and this is the beginning of the construction of the current modern plant to combine the operations of manufacturing butter and cheese. The new plant will begin operations in July 1963.

In 1967, the personal business became a limited liability company on the initiative of co-owners Lucien and Clément Tremblay who are the sons of Joseph Tremblay. In 1968, La Crémerie St-Fidèle bought the manufacturing permit for the Éboulements cooperative, and in 1969, the bulk of milk was collected. In the first year, there were only five producers who had coolers.

We have to wait until 1976 to see the beginning of the production of cheese emmental called Switzerland. With this new production, the plant was becoming much too small. That's why the Tremblay brothers decided in 1977 to proceed with a new expansion. Since then, Crèmerie Saint-Fidèle has won a first prize for the production of its Emmental cheese at a national exhibition in Toronto. This mention was to dedicate the quality of production in this type of cheese.

In 1988, brothers Lucien and Clément Tremblay decided to sell their business to the Coopérative Agricole de la Côte Sud. This Coop is joined with other cooperatives that formed the Lactel Group

In 2000, the Lactel Group closed the Crémerie Saint-Fidèle.

It was not until May 2001 that a consortium reopened the dairy.

The owners are therefore:

• Bay Dairy Inc.
• Fromagerie Boivin Inc.
• Milk Alliance (group of 36 dairy producers in Saguenay Lac St-Jean, Charlevoix)

Since then, the new Fromagerie St-Fidèle has never ceased to increase the quality of its products and reputation.