Bombardier Recreational Products or BRP is a Canadian company (once part of Bombardier Inc.) that traces its roots back to the year 1942 when Joseph-Armand Bombardier

Joseph-Armand Bombardier

Joseph-Armand Bombardier was a Canadian inventor and businessman, and was the founder of Bombardier...

 founded L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée in Valcourt in the Eastern Townships

Eastern Townships

The Eastern Townships is a tourist region and a former administrative region in south-eastern Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. Its northern boundary roughly followed Logan's Line, the geologic boundary between the flat,...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

.

In 2003, Bombardier Inc. sold its Recreational Products Division to a group of investors: Bain Capital

Bain Capital

Bain Capital LLC is a Boston-based private equity firm founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company. Originally conceived as an early-stage, growth-oriented investment fund, Bain Capital today manages approximately $65 billion in assets, and its strategies include private...

 (50%), Bombardier Family (35%) and Caisse de Dépôt & Placements du Québec

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec manages public pension plans in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was founded in 1965 by an act of the National Assembly...

 (15%).

The newly formed company was named Bombardier Recreational Products and included all the activities started 60 years earlier by its founder.