Walter Capital Partners takes majority stake in Les Éditions Passe-Temps

Walter Capital Partners acquired a significant shareholding in Les Éditions Passe-Temps on 4 November 2026, alongside Alexandre Gauthier Marchand, who joined the capital and took the presidency. Brothers Ludovic and Simon Tobin remained shareholders and active in the business their mother Thérèse Daignault founded. Established in 1996 and based in Quebec City, Les Éditions Passe-Temps conceives, publishes and manufactures educational games and books designed to teach reading, writing and mathematics through play. Its materials are used by primary teachers, special education staff and speech therapists, and its catalogue exceeds 700 products. The Placote range, introduced in 2016, applies the same principles to games sold directly to parents. Products of this kind are specified by the teachers and therapists who use them rather than purchased centrally, which means a publisher’s position depends on recognition among practitioners built over years, and on content whose pedagogical basis those practitioners accept. The company develops its materials with researchers and specialists, and that provenance is what distinguishes it from general toy and book publishing. Two directions were identified for the capital. The first is linguistic, the catalogue having been developed in French and the company intending to publish English editions, which opens the rest of Canada and markets beyond it. The second is acquisition, in a field divided among small specialist publishers.