In the early 1980’s, Tom Leyes (the Canadian salesman for AEC) set up a new dealer for AEC in Montreal, Canada which later became Geroquip. This new AEC Dealer started selling Allen Razorback Air-powered truss screeds (AEC’s main product at the time) across Quebec to contractors. Around 1983, Geroquip sold a concrete contractor in Quebec City, Canada a Razorback Truss Screed to build the Olympic skating oval.
Shortly after finishing the Olympic Skating oval, the Quebec contractor (PRP, Inc.) came to the World of Concrete trade show to show Tom Leyes a video of a floating screed that Roger Rouillard (one of the owners of PRP) had built. This innovative piece of concrete equipment was built using Allen brass air vibrators mounted to an aluminum board with handles and it was called the “Magic Devil”.
Over the following years, there were a series of discussions between the leadership of Geroquip, PRP, and AEC about the distribution of the Magic Devil into the USA. Finally, in a meeting in Ottawa, Canada, Dewayne Allen (Founder of AEC), Roger Rouillard (the contractor tuned inventor of the Magic Devil), and Roger Gagnon (One of the owners of Geroquip) agreed that AEC would become the exclusive distributor of the Magic Devil (for Geroquip) in the USA.
The Magic Devil went through several years of job-site testing and further development until it evolved into the engine-powered “Magic Screed”. When the Magic Screed was launched in the USA there were only two other manufacturers of floater screeds. Now, there are dozens of brands of concrete floater screeds. However, the Magic Screed remains a contractor favorite in the U.S. due to its innovative design and consistent performance in the wet screeding of concrete. Magic Screed has a great brand name reputation in the market and remains one of AEC’s top selling products year after year.
The U.S. concrete industry is grateful for the forward thinking of Canadian contractor Roger Roulillard who had a vision to design and build a tool to save labor and improve the quality of finished concrete. AEC is proud to still offer the Magic Screed in the USA over 37 years after the first product concept was presented to us at WOC.