Jean-Denis Beaudoin, 39, is determined to beat the odds and once again snare the reputation that Ayotte Drums used to take for granted after word of mouth turned the small Canadian drummaker into a world famous brand.

Alas, a changing marketplace, an ill-advised expansion plan, changes in ownership, a cross-country move and ultimately, financial woes, left the Quebec entrepreneur with a daunting challenge before he even took over.

Ayotte Drums Inc. was founded in 1982 by Ray Ayotte in Vancouver. By the early 1990s, it had become a leading producer and seller of quality, hand-built, high-end custom drums.

At its peak in the early '90s, Ay-otte was filling orders from across Canada, Europe and Japan, but still only made about 250 drum kits a year. By comparison, industry leader Pearl Drums was selling many times more.

The Ayotte bubble burst by the late 1990s B as the drum market started to become saturated with low-end, re less expensive drum kits from new producers that started selling h their products in big-box stores. During those tumultuous years, Ayotte lost majority control of his company to investors after he took it public in a bid to raise money and expand his business.

Vancouver's William Jennison took control of Ayotte Drums in 2002. In 2010, after a two-year search for a location outside of British Columbia, where Jennison said it had become too expensive to make a profit, Jennison moved the company to Bedford, in the Eastern Townships. He decided on Bedford because it's only about 10 minutes from the U.S. border and there were skilled craftsmen and resources in abundance. But despite Jennison's enthusiasm about the move, his dream never came to fruition. By the spring of 2012, he was forced to give up the business because of financial troubles.

Once more, Ayotte drums changed hands - and that's where Beau-doin, 39, comes in. He acquired the company and assets in March 2012 with a goal of re-establishing the brand name as one to trust.

"Ray Ayotte initially had a lot of success with the brand and a following of great Canadian players, such as Nickelback, Barenaked Ladies, Tragically Hip and Our Lady Peace," Beaudoin explained. "Then when the West Coast grunge movement took off in the early 1990s, it gave Ayotte very good exposure into international markets."

"The drums were a high-end product." But when the market became saturated, Ray Ayotte "tried to introduce a lower end of drums kits, such as the Pro Series and DrumSmith, but there were just too many middle-of-the-road producers. Many became victims of this change and didn't make it through the '90s," Beaudoin explained.

The innovations that Ayotte introduced to the modern drum world were wooden hoops (also referred to as rims) instead of die-cast or metal rims that other drums used. "This, along with the drums being constructed of wood originating from locally grown eastern sugar maple, is our signature," explained Paul Frederick, vice-president of business development for Ayotte.

"It is the combination of sugar maple and the wooden hoops that give Ayotte their classic sound. When it comes to drums, it's all about resonance."

The mid-market drum sells for roughly $1,000 to $2,500 for a five-piece kit. The high-end market starts at $2,500 and up. These are the two markets Ayotte is focusing on, with the upper-end cost only limited by your imagination and budget.

Ayotte produces three lines of handmade drums: the Classic Series, Velvet Series and Bedford Series. It also produces a line of drumsticks made from maple and hickory, which, like the drums, are highly acclaimed by drummers worldwide.

"We do the assembly, manufacturing and finishing in shop here in Bedford. The maple drum shells are formed in New Hampshire then shipped back to us here, but it's all local wood from this area," said Frederick, 58, who worked for close to 30 years with Pearl Drums.

The Bedford workshop and showroom is located close to Vermont and New York. "As the U.S. counts for 40 per cent of the market and Canada about 5 per cent, everybody targets the U.S.," Frederick said.

The road to recovery is not all smooth. "It takes a while to revive a company like this. It's got to be done slowly," said Beaudoin, who previously restructured other businesses.

In March, the owner of the Bedford building, Richard Desourdy, called up Beaudoin and said, 'Let's partner up.' They formed a new corporation - the Ayotte Custom Drums Corporation - and began to to restructure the company. "I brought in Paul (Frederick) at the same time to bring his experience and knowledge of the industry. Together, we really got things rolling along," Beaudoin said.

"The first thing we did after acquiring the business was to take an inventory and familiarize ourselves with what we had. We put together a profile - where we were and tried to interpret the state of the drum market before going ahead. As the new president, I had to show leadership and inspire the guys. I wanted our team of four to be compatible and work well together," Beaudoin said. "The biggest challenge was to spin off the bad press resulting from the lack of customer service over the past few years."

Frederick knew he had to bring these clients back into the fold.

"We had about 30 clients who invested money on their sets but were caught up in the turmoil that the company was going through (and never received the drums they had prepaid for). We looked into these concerns right away, for the brand and on a personal level," he explained. "We had to turn these disgruntled clients into ambassadors. We had to make a deal with clients and distributors, because of what happened in the past. Common sense, knowledge and experience and motivation have brought us up to the balanced footing we are on now. We are moving forward and adjusting; and as we go forward, we learn. "

Beaudoin anticipates a solid future for his business. "We are very optimistic, but realistic. The customer service, which we've dealt with individually, has gone smoother than expected. With the business plan, we're batting a thousand."

Frederick has great faith in the future of Ayotte and is dedicated to that goal. "Now we've pretty well put out the fires and have limited production up and running and now we are ramping up production and getting ready for the big NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Trade Show in Anaheim, California" this month.

"We're pretty much building up our inventory of finished goods and revving up production. The whole point now is that we are comfortable with work flow and how the finances are going," a confident Beaudoin said.

The company's website remains a work in progress. Right now, it just shows a note to customers explaining the difficult times the company has gone through and a vow to make things right.

"We haven't updated the website as we don't want to open the floodgates before we are ready," Beaudoin said.

It looks like that time will be arriving very soon.