page_title: Girardin Minibus
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Girardin Minibus / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 2000-2002 Ford E-350 photographed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
context_page_description: Girardin Minibus Inc. is a Canadian bus manufacturer. Based in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, Girardin forms part of the Micro Bird joint venture with Blue Bird Corporation. As part of Micro Bird, Girardin is a manufacturer of bus bodies for minibuses for cutaway van chassis.
  While many Micro Bird buses are produced as school buses and related student transport vehicles, Girardin also produces commercial-use buses using cutaway van chassis. In Canada, the company serves as the nationwide distributor of the Blue Bird school bus and commercial bus product line.
  Following the 2008 closure of Corbeil, Girardin was the lone Canadian-based manufacturer of school buses until the 2011 opening of Autobus Lion.
context_section_description: Girardin traces its roots to 1935, when company founder Lionel Girardin opened a used-car dealership and repair shop in St-Félix-de-Kingsey, Quebec.  He expanded into new-car sales in 1953 by opening a Chrysler dealership.  In 1958, Girardin entered the school bus market by becoming a school bus dealership.
  In 1965, Girardin opened a bus dealership in Drummondville, Quebec; along with bus sales, Girardin converted vans into minibuses (some of the first Type A school buses).  In 1981, a dedicated factory was built to keep up with demand; the factory was expanded in 1991 and again in 2000.
  In 1991, Girardin Minibus introduced the MB-II and MB-IV school buses; from 1992 to 1999, these were distributed throughout North America using the Blue Bird by Girardin name.  In 2005, the MB-IV was replaced with the G5, a redesigned dual rear-wheel Type A school bus.
  In 2009, Blue Bird Corporation entered into a joint venture with Girardin to produce Type A school buses.  Under the terms of the joint venture, Blue Bird's Micro Bird (in production since 1975) was phased out and replaced by Girardin-designed products built in Drummondville.
caption: Blue Bird by Girardin MB-II
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