Our Family:
About Us
Ron and Lisa credit much of their success to their strong retail background. Ron has 21 years in the retail grocery business, starting from high school and working his way up to store manager for Hannaford Bros. Lisa had 10 years with another Grocery chain.
They both know what customer service is and pride themselves with making it their Number 1 Priority. When not working They are both very involved with the local community. In the summer they both enjoy golfing and in winter x-country skiing and snowmobile.
History
Cote Brothers was founded in 1956, by brothers Norm and Paul Cote, to support the explosive shoe industry in Lewiston and Auburn, Maine. Later joined by brothers Bert and Ivan in 1958, the Cote brothers continued to grow with their sales of shoe machinery and custom made parts and attachments while the sisters cities of Lewiston and Auburn became the footwear manufacturing capital of the world at the time, with 55 shoe factories calling the area home. Names like Nike, L.L. Bean, Timberland, Falconshoe, Wolverine, NewBalance and Eastland Shoe, to name a few, grew their worldwide fame for quality out of those factories in Lewiston/Auburn, propelled by the machines and custom made parts from the Cote brothers.
Soon the Cote brothers became renown for their intuitive custom designed parts and additions to the machines they serviced. These custom parts became a mainstay for the brothers, and their customers found that often times these additions made their machines run smoother, faster, and their employees more productive. These custom crafted parts that set the Cote brothers apart in the early days are what we all call ergonomics today, and the brothers were truly ahead of their time.
With the introduction of computerized tackers and sewing machines such as the Brother BAS line and the Mitsubishi PLK line in the early Eighties, Cote Brothers jumped right onto this new technology and blazed forward, ahead of the competition. Following that, an infusion of new ideas and energy was added to the mix in the form of Ron Blake, who came on board in 1988. Under Ron's leadership Cote Brothers has continued to grow to the level of today.
Cote Brothers still maintains it's pursuit of cutting edge technology in the industrial sewing realm, plus they now have a retail division, an embroidery machine sales and service division, and Cote Brothers now sells nationwide. They support many other sewing machine dealers with their custom parts and attachments, they still hold the same values for quality and integrity that they did in 1956, and they're still family owned.
Cote Brothers retail division has had much the same success as the industrial division. Ron and Lisa ( co- owners ) started the retail in 1994 with the Brother Pacesetter line of machines and created a display area within the industrial shop. In 1997 we created a new store front and hired a fulltime educator. This allowed us to start classes and offer advice as well. We were quickly becoming known for quality, honesty, and customer service. We made a major move in November of 2001 and moved our entire operation to a retail location where we are today.
The overwhelming support our customers have given us has been wonderful. We now are a multi-line dealer with our two main brands in the home machines being Bernina and Brother. We offer unlimited guide classes on every machine we sell. We give much more than that, check out our value added page. We now have expanded our store hours, hired more education staff, expanded our service dept, and hired more people. Cote Brothers Sewing Machines has become the largest dealer in New England with an impeccable reputation. It is with out a doubt that our employees are our main reason for success. While they all like to sew it is their dedication and hard work that has got us to where we are.
We are continuing to bring you new things all the time. We are becoming the premier dealer for embroidery with offering over 11 models of home embroidery machines and 7 models of industrial machines. We also offer 3 brands of software with multi levels of each. Our embroidery club has been a huge success and now we are teaching software on a regular basis and even computer basics. Our motto is "WE WILL GET YOU THERE"
Our customers are now coming from all over the state because of our level of service has been unmatched.