Transcontinental announced Wednesday that its founder, Rémi Marcoux, is stepping down as executive chair of the board of directors in February 2012, to be replaced by his daughter Isabelle.


Marcoux is leaving the post at the next shareholders' meeting on Feb. 16, 2012, but will remain a member of the board. Isabelle Marcoux's tenure as chair will begin the same day.

Rémi Marcoux, 71, "expressed his wish to slow his pace of work while continuing to closely monitor the affairs of the business he co-founded more than 35 years ago", noted the company.

Isabelle Marcoux started at Transcontinental in 1997, and has been vice chair of the board of directors of Transcontinental since 2007 and vice president of corporate development since 2004.

According to the company, she is also on the boards of George Weston Limited, Power Corporation of Canada, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montréal, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

She is also a director of Rogers Communications, a competitor of Transcontinental in the magazine arena, although they have close ties — Transcontinental prints Rogers' magazine titles.

In a separate announcement Wednesday, Transcontinental released its third quarter earnings, showing a net income of $12.3 million, down from $30.6 million during the same three-month period last year. Revenues in the third quarter of 2011 were $492.6 million, compared to $481.3 million in the same quarter of 2010. "This increase [in revenue] was primarily due to a number of new contracts, most notably from the expanded relationship with the Globe and Mail," noted the company.

The report also makes note of the pending transaction with Quad/Graphics to acquire its assets. It said the sale of Transcontinental's Mexican operations to Quad/Graphics has been approved by the Mexican Federal Competition Commission. In addition, Transcontinental will also transfer its black-and-white book printing business to Quad/Graphics.  As a result, jobs will be lost. "Transcontinental will gradually reduce approximately one third of its workforce in its Louiseville and Sherbrooke plants where this book work is produced."

Transcontinental has already announced the closure of LithoAcme, with equipment from that location headed for Direct Montreal.