Originally from Gaspesie, Donat Element moved to Val-d’Or in 1965 with his wife and 14 children. Working in the field of construction, Donat Element founded his own company in Val-d’Or in 1971. At the beginning, Donat Element & Fils acts mainly as a forestry and construction contractor. Over time, the company gained experience and developed expertise in different areas and its reputation started to spread beyond its provincial borders. In 1989, Donat Élément & Fils was recognized and awarded the INNOVAT 89 Award for excellence in business.

Jacques Element, the son of Donat Element, grew up working in his father’s business. Building upon his father success, in 1980 Jacques Element launched another business in the forestry sector, Les Abatteurs Jacques Element Inc., a forestry road construction company.

In 1988, Jacques Élément acquired Hydraulique Val d’Or. Two years later he built his third company, Foresco Laser, which is a specialized business providing laser/plasma cutting and metal shaping service to the region.

Technologies Element PSW Inc., the operating business for the Eltec brand, is the latest addition to the Group of Element companies. By uniting their strengths, the family of companies known as Group Element have gone from selling, repairing and maintaining heavy equipment to manufacturing forestry equipment under their own brand.

Eltec was established by Patrick Element in 2011.  Patrick is a 3rd generation logger who not only understood the hard work required to make a living in forestry, but also believed he could build better machines for people like him.