A Gatineau dairy co-operative is looking to expand into Ottawa by launching a new ice cream brand and investing $17 million in its operations over the next few years. About 15 years ago, Laiterie Château closed its doors in Gatineau after 60 years. As a result, the dairy industry in the area mobilized to form […]
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A Gatineau dairy co-operative is looking to expand into Ottawa by launching a new ice cream brand and investing $17 million in its operations over the next few years.
About 15 years ago, Laiterie Château closed its doors in Gatineau after 60 years. As a result, the dairy industry in the area mobilized to form the Laiterie de l’Outaouais. Since its creation in 2006, the co-operative has captured an approximately 40 per cent share of the milk market in the Outaouais region, while also fighting for its place among other dairy companies.
“What’s important is to make sure that our products are available,” the co-operative’s CEO Yannick Bouchard told OBJ this week. “In the big world of grocery, it’s a battle that we fight almost every day.”
Four years ago, the Laiterie’s board of directors decided to expand the business by growing into the Ottawa market and diversifying the product portfolio. As a result, the Laiterie has gotten its products on the shelves of major grocery stores in the capital, including Walmart, No Frills and Your Independent Grocer.
The $17-million expansion project officially began in 2025, with investments in automation at the Gatineau facility to double production.
The Laiterie also felt it needed to diversify its product line in order to scale, and the board decided that ice cream was the best choice. However, the co-op was new to the world of ice-cream making, and so sent some employees to the University of Guelph’s food science lab to learn more.
“These were the first steps, the baby steps, in 2022. We started by producing ice cream mixes for scoop shops around town, such as La Cigale in Chelsea and Merry Dairy in Ottawa. We got to improve and really become experts at ice cream last year,” Bouchard said.
Originally wanting to sell the ice cream under the Laiterie de l’Outaouais banner, Bouchard said the team realized that marketing ice cream was different from milk.
“Milk is really more conventional. It’s a product that you use every day, while ice cream is more about the moment you create, the experience you have. So we decided to separate the name and make Rebelle ice cream. The name goes back to the mobilization movement 15 years ago, in the sense that the population decided to take action for something that was important to them,” he said.
Rebelle ice cream launched this spring, with tubs for sale at grocery stores and at two franchise stores in Gatineau. The four flavours are vanilla, chocolate, iced cappuccino and “Funkky,” a play on fruity cereal and milk.
Moving forward, the two scoop shops in Gatineau will be the testing ground for what the Laiterie hopes will be a growing franchise business, operating year-round.
“The franchise that we want to create is not a scoop shop that will be open six months a year, but will be open year-round. There’s still a lot of work still to be done to have more than two franchises, but these two will provide the model to make sure we’re successful over the years,” he said, adding that the Laiterie hopes to open a franchise in Ottawa next year.
Immediate next steps include marketing Rebelle, as well as the rest of the co-op’s products, to the wider Ottawa region to increase market share.
Bouchard said the Laiterie is also investing in local produce as it looks to expand its flavour lineup.
“When construction (around the Laiterie in Gatineau) will be over, we’ll have access to what we call our ‘flavour lab.’ In that ‘flavour lab,’ we will buy fruits from local producers, (such as) blueberries and strawberries, and transform them into ingredients for ice cream.
“The intent is to have a high-quality product, a very local product, to help the economic development of the area. These fruit producers will be able to invest on their side if they have more sales,” he said.
To strengthen its ties to the community, the Laiterie has teamed up with the Ottawa Senators.
“This will be a long journey, and that’s okay,” he said. “It’s going to take time but that’s the only way to grow in a sustainable way. We decided to start that journey (to integrate in the Ottawa community) by being a part of an interesting program with the Ottawa Senators called the Future Sens program.”
The program allows youth hockey teams to play exhibition games before Ottawa Senators home games.
“The Ottawa Senators were very cognizant of our objectives and offered us the program that was previously sponsored by Canadian Tire before COVID,” he said. “We provide chocolate milk at events to get our products known.”
