BOMBARDIER INC. is an industrial company based in Canada, with its major sources of revenue in Europe and the US. Best known in the US for the Sea-Doo and Ski-Doo products, Bombardier actually has five core businesses: Bombardier Aerospace, Bombardier Transportation, Bombardier Recreational Products, Bombardier Capital, and finally Bombardier International, a business group whose purpose is to drum up business in places other than the US and Europe. As of January 31, 2001, Bombardier's assets come to 20 billion Canadian dollars, and a CDN$31.7bn backlog.
Bombardier is a diversified corporation composed of autonomous operating groups. Each group has the necessary authority upon its operations and is expected to take measures to achieve a high level of performance consistent with the mission, code of ethics, policies and internal governance of the Corporation.
--Bombardier Website
HISTORY
Bombardier was founded in 1942 as "L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitee" by J. Armand Bombardier, as a company producing tracked vehicles for traversing snow, based on a patent awarded in June of 1937. The company spent the next four years building tracked military vehicles. In the late sixties they released the first commercial personal watercraft, a sit-down model which received only limited success. L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitee became Bombardier Limited in 1967, and was listed on the Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges in 1969. In 1974, they found their way into the Transportation industry (outside of recreational products) with a contract to build equipment for the city of Montreal's subway system.
Bombardier began manufacturing general-use snowmobiles (notably, the C18, and the B12 which would see production in various forms until 1988) during its wartime production of military-use vehicles, but never sold a product under its now-familiar brand name "Ski-Doo" until 1959. 1988 saw the launch of the Sea-Doo product line, a range of personal watercraft which gained a reputation for speed and handling over the competing Wave Runner products from Yamaha. Just a year later, in 1989, Bombardier announced the upcoming production of the Canadair Regional Jet, the first in a long line of aircraft products to come out of Bombardier.
Bombardier began selling two sport boats called the "Speedster" and "Sportster" in 1994, using the same engine as their snowmobile and personal watercraft products. In 1998, the same engine is re-employed to power the new Bombardier ATV Traxter, an all-new ATV.
PRODUCTION FACILITIES
Bombardier has production facilities in Canada, the United States of America, Europe, Brazil, Uganda, India, the People's Republic of China, and in Australia. European facilities are located in Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Poland, France, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
References:
Website: Bombardier, Inc. (http://www.bombardier.com)
Website: Personal Watercraft Industry Association, History of Personal Watercraft (http://www.pwia.org/Abo_PWC.htm)