Raymond Brouillette and his brother Jacques signed a contract with John Deere to sell agricultural equipment at their highway 64 lumber yard location. The store was then known as "Brouillette Bros.
1972-1973
Ray and Jacques dissolved their partnership; Ray kept the John Deere equipment part of the business, moving to the company’s current location on HWY 17. The store was called Verner Equipment at the time.
1975
The company was incorporated as R.L. Equipment Sales and Services Ltd. The “R” for Raymond, the “L” for Lorraine, his spouse.
1978
R.L. Equipment becomes a Yamaha snowmobile and motorcycle dealer.
1982
John Deere stops producing snowmobiles and the ATV craze starts. This is when the company really took a recreational angle.
1987
The store gets its first building addition.
1993
R.L. Equipment becomes an Arctic Cat snowmobile and watercraft dealer.
1994-1995
Yves Brouillette (son of Ray) purchases the company. The fall of 1995 sees R.L. Equipment's second location open in North Bay.
1996-1997
These years have seen some big changes. The winter of 1996 was R.L. Equipment's last season with Arctic Cat, and the fall of 1997 brought the closure of the North Bay location. Things were going too fast and as a result, customer service was suffering. The company decided to only do business at its original location, to keep its personality and quality of service.
2001
The economic situation around the company was in constant change and customer needs were changing. To meet customer demand, R.L. Equipment signed on as a Honda dealer. At the same time, the company discontinued selling agricultural products, concentrating on John Deere’s consumer products. This includes compact/utility diesel tractors, grounds care equipment, and lawn tractors.
2002
The store sees its second addition, adding our current parts and accessories showroom.
2003
R.L. Equipment receives its first Yamaha Five Star Dealer award, and has remained ever since.
2005
A third warehouse is added to be used as a showroom and give the company more room and flexibility. A new cement loading ramp was built to offer safe customer loading and unloading.
2007
A final addition was added, increasing the company's parts and accessories inventory capacities.
2008
R.L. Equipment becomes a G3 boat dealer.
2011
R.L. Equipment becomes a Stanley boat dealer.
2015
R.L. Equipment becomes a Skeeter boat dealer.
2022
Robin Brouillette (son of Yves) purchases the company. R.L. Equipment adds Surron to their product offering.
2023
R.L. Equipment becomes a KTM dealer.
Today
Today R.L. Equipment is proud to offer premium brands, such as Yamaha, Honda, KTM, John Deere, G3, Skeeter, and Stanley. Our experts work hard to offer valuable knowledge and a great experience. For the last 52 years, R.L. Equipment's recipe has always been the same: true and honest customer service. Remember, it takes longer to bake a pie than to drive to R.L. Equipment in Verner!
