Profile
Company History
| 1930 | Marcel Desrochers is born in Joliette. |
| 1950 | Marcel Desrochers has its first job at the Canadian National Railways in Joliette and complements his day job by becoming projectionist at Cinema Joliette. |
| 1960 | Marcel Desrochers is one of the four founders of the IATSE Montreal local and President. |
| 1965 | Marcel Desrochers moves his family to Montreal and becomes full time IATSE stage hand. |
| 1967 | Marcel Desrochers is responsible during International World Expo in Montreal for hiring 400 technicians and stage hands needed to run all activities during Expo 67. |
| 1968 | Marcel Desrochers received a special citation from the international President of IATSE at the Dallas convention. |
| 1969 | Marcel Desrochers worked with the three founders of IMAX to prepare the first IMAX presentation in Expo Osaka in Japan. |
| 1970 | Incorporation of Marcel Desrochers inc operating under the trade name of MDI. |
| 1973 | MDI is a leading Canadian manufacturer of scenery, of drapery for theatres, opera houses, museums and institutions and screen masking for the cinema industry. |
| 1976 | MDI is the main supplier of services for the Montreal Olympics. |
| 1978 | MDI starts a leasing division for draperies, stages, platforms and deserves the commercial show industry. |
| 1980 | MDI undertakes the contract for the supply of the complete scenery for The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto. For the first time, 35 PC computers are used to control most of the cues of the show. |
| 1982 | MDI becomes the main supplier to the Marvish family for their theatres in Toronto and London. |
| 1983 | Liberace comes to Montreal and tells everybody : « I want to meet Marcel Desrochers, it is very important ». He embraces Marcel and says : « Marcel, thank you very, very much! Before every show, I am very nervous and most of the time sick. Before entering the stage, I usually enlace the side curtain and hold it tight just to realize that I have your label just in front of my eyes : ‘’Manufactured by Marcel Desrochers’’. I started to pray and invoke you : Marcel, please help me so I do a good show! It works!! » |
| 1987 | MDI opens his new production facilities in Joliette. |
| 1990 | MDI is now a well established company in North America operating in a specialized market. Benoit Mailloux becomes Vice President. |
| 1991 | At the very urgent request of Gerry Nadeau, manager of Famous Players in Montreal, MDI manufactures its first cinema screen. Marcel opens a plant in St-Émélie dedicated only to the research and development of the cinema screen. |
| 1995 | MDI moves into a new modern plant in Joliette and the screen division is becoming the fastest growing division of the company. |
| 1996 | MDI sells all its divisions to members of his family in a corporate reorganisation and keeps exclusively the screen and the screen support system divisions and moves into a new manufacturing plant in Joliette. |
| 1997 | Marcel Desrochers and Benoit Mailloux negotiate a long term contract with IMAX to paint their screens in a brand new 90’ x 90’ x 50’ painting tower unique in the world in Joliette. |
| 2000 | The Joliette plant is enlarged to cope with the demand and the new home cinema division. |
| 2003 | MDI introduces its new aluminum coating for the MDI silver screens and its new MDI pearled coating for the commercial cinema industry. |
| 2005 | MDI doubles its sales every two years. |
| 2006 | Marcel Desrochers mandates Benoit Mailloux to find a buyer for MDI. |
| 2007 | Marcel Desrochers signs the letter of intent with Ballantyne of Omaha inc. |
| 2007 | Marcel Desrochers quits its office on June 10 and dies June 16, 2007. |
| 2007 | MDI becomes on October 16 a wholly owned subsidiary of Ballantyne of Omaha inc. |
| 2008 | MDI becomes Strong/MDI and doubles its 2007 sales. |
| 2009 | Strong/MDI doubles its 2008 sales. Ballantyne of Omaha becomes Ballantyne/Strong. |
| 2009 | Strong/MDI receives its accreditation to ISO 9001 for its management and quality control system. |