Coachbult.com - Corbeil



Corbeil - les Entreprises Michel Corbeil Inc - 1936-present - St.-Lin-Laurentide, Quebec, Canada

Michel Corbeil and his family have a long history in manufacturing quality products. Michel's father founded the Corbeil factory in 1936. This tradition of excellence thus emerged with Joseph Henri Corbeil, who started a small company named J.H. Corbeil, a manufacturer of truck and bus bodies.

As the demand for bus bodies increased considerably, J.H. Corbeil decided in 1956, to exclusively manufacture this product line.

In 1960, following the death of the company founder, its direction was passed on to his three sons. Under their reign, the company continued its expansion and held at one point, nearly 65% of the eastern Canadian market. This growth initiated the construction of a larger manufacturing facility, erected next to the original factory.

In 1975, the J.H. Corbeil was sold to an American corporation, which closed the St-Lin-Laurentides operation during the recession of the early 80's.

In 1985, Michel Corbeil and his partners were back in the small 7,000 square foot factory built by his father 50 years earlier. Thus the beginning of Les Entreprises Michel Corbeil Incorporated. During the first year, manufacturing 77 single wheels mini-buses. By 1991, product offering expanded with the introduction of dual wheel and conventional models, all built on the same assembly line.

Today, Corbeil encompasses a 130,000 square foot factory, building over 2,500 vehicles per year with the ability to expand to meet future needs.

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Les Entreprises Michel Corbeil Incorporated manufacturing facility is located in a small city, St-Lin-Laurentides, 30 miles (50 km) north of Montreal. In a decade, Corbeil went from manufacturing only school mini-buses, with capacities ranging from 16 to 20 passengers, to a large manufacturer producing Type A, C and D buses. These models include school mini-buses with single or dual rear wheel , conventional school buses, and flat nose school buses offering forward control or rear engine. Corbeil also produces a range of commercial vehicles, which can be adapted for the transportation of physically challenged people.

The Corbeil product line has acquired a considerable reputation due to great quality design, and the fact that each vehicle is adapted to the customers needs. Corbeil buses are not assembled in mass production, but individually built to ensure that they meet rigorous company standards and individual customer expectations. Moreover, we always make sure that our buses meet or exceed all regulations and standards.

Our company philosophy is to build custom buses that consumers want to buy; we do not want to mass-produce buses that we feel would not meet all their expectations. This fundamental philosophy combined with the expertise of our employees is our greatest asset. In 1996 and 1999, we received and award for being one of the 50 Best Managed Private Companies in Canada, awarded by the Financial Post newspaper.

For more information please read:

Ed Strauss & Karen Strauss - The Bus World Encyclopedia of Buses

G.N. Georgano & G. Marshall Naul - The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles

Albert Mroz - Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks & Commercial Vehicles

Donald F. Wood - American Buses

Denis Miller - The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trucks and Buses

Susan Meikle Mandell - A Historical Survey of Transit Buses in the United States

David Jacobs - American Buses, Greyhound, Trailways and Urban Transportation

William A. Luke & Linda L. Metler - Highway Buses of the 20th Century: A Photo Gallery

William A. Luke & Brian Grams - Buses of Motorcoach Industries 1932-2000 Photo Archive

William A. Luke - Greyhound Buses 1914-2000 Photo Archive

William A. Luke - Prevost Buses 1924-2002 Photo Archive