From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

lEFt: Mark McCain (centre)
chats with Anton Haverkort
(right), scientific reviewer of
McCain agriculture programs
around the world.
RIGHt: Andy Goodwin (left),
then director of agriculture
McCain South Africa, at the
signing of an agreement
with Technico, an Australian
company, to provide pea-size
micro-tubers to produce seed
potatoes in South Africa.
Democracy meant the end of apartheid and, consequently, of the country’s economic
isolation. The result, the corporate development team believed, would be accelerated
economic development. “It was the dawn of a new age,” says Mark McCain, who is a
son of Harrison.
Travelling around South Africa, he met with people involved in the restaurant and
retail sides of the food business, as well as economic staff of the Canadian Embassy,
local banks, government bodies, non-governmental organizations, and the census
bureau chief for demographic information. “I was trying to get a feel for the market
and the potential,” he explains.
Once the corporate development team decided the market was promising, Mark
began studying the all-important agricultural side. If McCain was going to open a
factory to make french fries and other frozen products, it would need a steady local
supply of high-quality raw materials.
South Africa grows potatoes all year round but not the preferred varieties that
McCain uses in other countries to meet its international standard of french fries. So
the next step was developing seed potatoes of the preferred varieties and propagating
seed in different parts of the country. Like the United Kingdom, South Africa prohibits
importation of potatoes except with a special permit, under quarantine, and in
very small volumes. Han van den Hoek, an agriculture expert from the Netherlands,
now vice-president of agriculture for continental Europe, came to help in the agricultural
experiments.
The next step was to buy or build a processing facility. Irvin & Johnson, a South
African conglomerate that was one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest fish companies,
also owned a frozen vegetable division and a new french fry factory. But Irvin
& Johnson wasn’t interested in selling. “We danced around with them for about five
years,” says Mark. Once McCain decided it wasn’t getting anywhere with Irvin &
Johnson, it started looking for a building site. “When we started looking for a site,
we kind of made some noise. I don’t know if that scared them or if there were other
factors, but they came to the table and we did a deal.”
In 2000, after negotiations led by Terry Bird, who had replaced McClure as head
of corporate development, McCain bought Irvin & Johnson’s french fry plant, as well
as two frozen vegetable plants. Then there was another important decision to make.
Irvin & Johnson was well established as a frozen food brand in South Africa, whereas
McCain was unknown. How to switch to the McCain brand without losing Irvin &
Johnson customers?
Partner’s first priority was to establish a positive image of McCain in the minds
of South African consumers. The company did extensive consumer research, which
revealed that homemakers would respond to a realistic depiction of their lifestyles.
The message McCain got from its research, Partner says, was “Don’t portray me as
the paragon of virtue who is waiting for her husband with her lipstick on and the
children with their hair brushed and the perfectly balanced meal on the table. Portray
my life as it is and show how McCain fits into that hectic role.”
So that’s what McCain’s first TV commercials did. They showed a woman working
and trying to run a home and feed a family. At the end, the commercial said, “Life’s
too short to peel a pea … Think again. Think McCain.” The response was overwhelmingly
positive. And the catchy slogan, “Think again. Think McCain,” which conveys
the idea of rethinking false attitudes to frozen vegetables, has become well known in
South Africa.
Yet at the beginning, McCain was nervous about too quickly abandoning the Irvin
& Johnson brand, rated in an annual survey as the ninth best-known food brand in
South Africa. So it decided on a one-year policy of co-branding – putting both brand
190 From the GrouN d up
New w orlds to CoN quer 191
McCain TV commercial: “Life’s
too short to peel a pea.”