From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

the beginning of all
By Gustavo Scioli
Field Department Manager, McCain Argentina
We were awaiting a visit from Harrison McCain. This was
important: one of the owners of the company was coming,
and we wanted to make a good impression.
As the date came closer, our nerves increased. The day
would start with field visits, followed by a barbecue lunch
with some of the farmers. In the afternoon, Harrison would
visit the plant.
I was responsible for the field visits. I made sure our
agronomy vehicles were clean and I organized the walkietalkies.
Nothing could fail. One of my worries was the
weather – rain would complicate things. I checked the
forecasts but all indicated good conditions.
The day finally came. We picked up Harrison at the
airport early in the morning. The weather was good, the
vehicles looked bright, everything seemed perfect.
The first field we visited was one surrounded by hills, making
the vista especially beautiful. It was potato-planting season
and the farmer was conditioning and planting the seed.
Seagulls flew about the seeder. The sun shined. Looking
at the passing seeder, I had a moment of poetic inspiration.
“Look, Mr. Harrison,” I said, “the beginning of all.”
He turned to me with a serious expression on his
face and answered without hesitation. “This is not the
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From the GrouN d up
McCain employees at the
tenth-anniversary party
of McCain Argentina, in
Balcarce.
Harrison’s 1998 visit to McCain Argentina: Harrison (in white
shirt) is standing behind the pile of potatoes, with Adolfo
Lopez Rouger (left) and Tony van Leersum (right). The workers
in the foreground are hand-cutting the seed potatoes.
beginning of all. The beginning is when a child asks for a
cone of french fries in a restaurant.”
That ended the conversation, and he walked away to
join the rest of the group. I was perplexed by his response.
I had never thought about it in that way. For me, an agronomist,
the beginning was always the planting.
But the old sea wolf was absolutely right. If a child
doesn’t ask for french fries in the restaurant, planting is not
necessary. It was a good lesson, one I will never forget.
eager to be their own boss and build up a business themselves. McCain helped them
lease small vehicles, paid for painting their vehicles in McCain colours and decorating
them with the McCain logo, and trained them to sell frozen french fries. The
same system of demonstrating the virtues of frozen fries to chefs that had worked
elsewhere was successfully used in Argentina, although with one difference: often the
new customers would take only a few bags of frozen fries – not even a full carton.
McCain also helped distributors choose other frozen products to sell, products
compatible with and of a quality comparable to McCain’s products. Selling more
products helps the distributor cover overheads faster than if it sold only McCain
products. “This strategy in Argentina was ‘drink the local wine’ and that has proven
very successful,” says Van Leersum. As of 2007, McCain had 120 distributors covering
Buenos Aires and the rest of the country. In Brazil, McCain worked with existing
food service distributors to develop a network to cover that vast country.
The McCain approach to South America was the same one it used in other parts of
the world: export first, build when a beachhead has been established, and keep spreading
the word to the food service industry that frozen french fries have several advantages
over fresh. Of course, it didn’t hurt that McDonald’s was expanding in the region
and needed McCain to supply its famous MacFries. In the early years, McDonald’s was
90 percent of McCain South America’s sales. By 2007, McDonald’s accounted for only
30 percent of McCain’s business. The non-McDonald’s market was growing faster in
part because of the success of McCain salespeople in persuading small chains, independent
restaurants, and school cafeterias to switch to a frozen product.
The major difference between the North American and South American markets,
from McCain’s point of view, is in the degree to which there is room for growth in
New w orlds to CoN quer
lEFt and MIddlE: Potato
Smiles are a favourite with
kids: TV commercial auditions
for the potato specialty.
RIGHt: A puppet show in
school educates kids about
nutrition.
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