From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

A McCain International group
on a 1996 whitewater rafting
excursion in Penobscot,
Maine, to celebrate a record
year. Rafters are David
Sanchez, Debbie Demerchant,
Alex Scholten, Chris Wishart,
Marie Smith, Dale Perley, and
Keith McGlone. The guide
(far left) was not a McCain
employee.
the job, they shipped me down to Chile. That’s
pretty amazing.”
Bockmann has been travelling the world for
McCain ever since. “I am just continuing what
was instilled in me as a kid,” he says. “Travel
has always been in my blood.” At the age of
thirty-one, Bockmann, who speaks four languages,
became head of McCain International,
the Florenceville-based division responsible
for sales and marketing in all the countries
not assigned to a regional management team
or factory source. McCain International covers
Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, parts
of South America, the Middle East, southeast
Asia, most of Africa, Iceland, and small
Mediterranean states, including Malta. Sales
representatives represent McCain in each location.
McCain International was created from the export division of McCain Foods
(Canada) in 1994, when the company increased its focus on market development. Its
first president was Harrison’s son, Peter, who was ideally suited to the job. He loved
to travel and was fascinated by foreign cultures and languages. He had worked as a
salesman in France for Pomona, one of McCain’s distributors. In addition to French,
he spoke Portuguese and some Spanish. He had been a salesman for Day & Ross and
served in the sales, finance, marketing, and export sales departments of McCain before
assuming the job of vice-president of export sales for McCain Foods Canada. He
was, therefore, well prepared to launch McCain International.
“Peter was probably smarter than Harrison, which is hard to believe,” says David
Sanchez, who helped Peter get McCain International established and who later became
CFO for McCain Foods Limited. “He had the same mix of raw intellect, curiosity,
focus on the important aspects of business, and an incredible market sense.”
As of 2007, McCain International had a staff of about one hundred people, some
based in Florenceville, the rest sprinkled around the globe. “McCain International is
able to try out new ideas that the rest of the group can latch on to,” says Bockmann, who
ran the division for four years until he was appointed to the China job in 2006. “For
example, you can try out a marketing idea in one small country. If it fails, it only cost
$50,000. If you were to try it in Canada or the United States, it might cost $1 million.”
A McCain sales trip
By Paul Tol
In 1999, Douglas Henderson, area manager for the
Caribbean, and I visited Guyana, Suriname, and French
Guiana on a sales trip for McCain International. At our first
appointment, in Guyana’s Georgetown, on the north coast
of South America, we took an order from a KFC franchise
owner. However, the only store in the area with freezers was
the Texaco Minimart, and it needed them for ice cream: so
much for the retail market and Harrison McCain’s goal of a
McCain Foods bag in every household freezer in the region.
Our flight to the Suriname capital of Paramaribo had been
bumped by two days so we looked for alternate transportation.
Told that a taxi would take eight hours, we left at noon, expecting
to dine in Suriname that evening. Nobody mentioned we
would have to cross three rivers by ferry, finding a new taxi after
each crossing. The first two went smoothly, though two guys
with laptops looked a bit out of place on the ferry amid the
farmers, field workers, and other locals.
We arrived at the Suriname river border crossing to learn
that the last ferry of the day had left and the next was not
until morning. For $20, the customs officer was willing to
find someone to transport us – illegally – the two kilometres
across the river. His neighbour had a handmade wooden
canoe with an outboard motor; the fare was $40.
Halfway across the river, it started raining, but we made it.
It was now five o’clock. We found someone who would drive
us the four hours to Paramaribo, first stopping to have our
passports stamped, to ensure a trouble-free departure. The
officer was not happy to see us: he knew we hadn’t been on
that last ferry. He told us to go back to Guyana the way we had
come. Debate ensued. But it was dinnertime, and he decided
he would rather eat than argue. He relented, and we were on
our way.
Three hours later and sixty kilometres from our destination,
the taxi had mechanical problems. Fortunately, the
driver’s cousin lived nearby, and we borrowed his minivan.
The vehicle had no side windows, the windshield was
cracked, and the rear door hung loose. Still, we arrived at
our hotel at 10:30 p.m.
After our appointments the next day, we went to the
airport for our flight to Cayenne, capital of French Guiana,
a French overseas department. At the airline counter, the
Paul Tol speaking at a distributor-appreciation night in 2004,
as Allison McCain and Kai Bockmann look on.
clerk refused to check us in, as we couldn’t prove we had
had our yellow fever shots. But the pilot agreed to take us if
we stayed in the Cayenne airport’s transit area and took the
next flight out. However, on arrival, French customs let us in.
The next morning we met with the local McDonald’s
owner and visited stores. Then we flew to Martinique,
another French overseas department. We enjoyed a fine bottle
of wine with dinner and went to sleep early. The next day
we headed to the airport for our short flight to St. Lucia.
Because of a strike, the airport road was blocked. But
by this time we had learned there is usually more than one
route. We took a ferry across the bay: we would approach the
airport by taxi from another direction. But the second road
was blockaded also. A boat owner said he could get us within
two kilometres of the airport for $100. He did, and a fisherman
then got us through to the airport in his pickup truck.
Because of the blockades, no check-in or immigration
staff was on duty. We walked to the departure gate, gave the
captain our tickets, and away we went.
In St. Lucia, for once, everything went smoothly, including
our meetings with KFC and the J.Q. Charles supermarket
chain. I returned to Florida, mission accomplished. I had
arrived home in one piece and with new orders – although
after I turned in my expense account, I had some explaining
to do.
218 From the GrouN d up
New w orlds to CoN quer 219