Victoriaville (ice hockey)

Product type	Ice hockey equipment
Owner	Canadian Tire
Country	Canada
Introduced	1945

Victoriaville is a Canadian brand of ice hockey equipment owned by the Canadian Tire Corporation via its subsidiary INA International. The brand was created in Victoriaville, Quebec in 1945 by Henri Mailhot, who formed the company Mailhot & Frères, Inc. In 1952, Mailhot handed down the business to his sons, who ran it for the next two decades. During the 1960s, Victoriaville was the preeminent hockey stick in the National Hockey League and had approximately a 65 per cent share of the hockey stick market. In 1971, the Mailhot brothers sold the business to the Kendall Company of Massachusetts, which a year later was acquired by Colgate-Palmolive. The Victoriaville company became independent once again in 1981 when it was bought by Victor Farr. After a fire at the factory in 1987, Farr sold the business. The Victoriaville name went through multiple ownership changes, until it was acquired by the Forzani Group through its subsidiary INA in 2003. Forzani was taken over by Canadian Tire in 2011, who has owned the brand since. Canadian Tire manufactures Victoriaville equipment alongside its other brands, Sher-Wood and Hespeler.