From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

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TOP: The September 1967 edition of Executive magazine featured the McCains. BOTTOm: George McClure, 1970. They were bringing home only $100 a week when employees such as Frank Hickling were earning $150. Everything the company earned was being ploughed back into it. “Some people are in business to clip dividends or make a certain amount of profit,” Harrison told Canadian Business magazine. “We’re in business to grow.” By the end of the 1960s, growth was well underway. In his 1968 Christmas message to employees, Harrison remarked that McCain had already become the largest frozen vegetable company in Canada and one of the largest frozen french fry producers in the world. Much bigger companies saw what the McCains were accomplishing and wanted in. Heinz, Imasco, General Foods, and others offered to buy McCain Foods. The brothers could have sold and retired from fourteen-hour workdays to lives of leisure. “We never considered it,” says Wallace. “It never crossed our minds.” For them, building a great business was more fun than sailing or playing golf. “You’re in love with the game,” Harrison explained to Executive magazine. “The game is action, what’s going on. There’s something new all the time – buying companies, building factories, hiring guys, motivating people, seeing advertising programs, taking positions on commodities, borrowing money, settling lawsuits.” George McClure, an economist who had held senior government positions, joined McCain in 1970. He was attracted by the energy and optimism that the company’s leaders brought to work with them every day. They were going to do big things and nothing was going to stand in their way. “It was a sense,” says McClure, “of ‘the world is our oyster.’” Maritimers are international traders. Their own home markets are too small to sustain large businesses, so they need to look elsewhere, not only west to the rest of Canada but south to the United States and east across the Atlantic. It did not escape the notice of the McCains that the freight rate from New Brunswick to England was lower than the rate to Vancouver. Nor did they fail to observe that nobody was making any serious attempt to sell frozen french fries to the British, a nation of chip eaters. A vast market was there for the taking. “Our dad was an exporter of seed potatoes and he taught us the world is small,” Harrison McCain told the Toronto Star in 1975. “We were lucky to have our vision of the whole world as a market. Our business succeeded because we didn’t want to sit here on our arse in New Brunswick.” Being part of the McCain team in its first decades was exhilarating, in part because the McCains were so quick to pounce on new opportunities. “It was ready, fire, aim,” says McClure. “We were out to dominate the processed-potato business in the world. It was a crazy goal but we just had an intuitive feeling that we could do it. It was a remarkable feeling, and you can’t duplicate that in many jobs … The best thing and the thing that appealed to me most was a great sense of adventure.” As the 1960s progressed and the company continued to grow, the McCains were having far too much fun to even think about selling the company. The adventure was just beginning. 34 From the Ground up t he BeG inninG 35 Florenceville employees celebrate McCain’s twentyfifth anniversary.
Special thanks also to ... McCain has survived and thrived with the dedication and generous hard work of so many people over the years, people whose contributions and stories would fill many books. Some have been named and quoted in this one, or appear in the pictures. Because there is not enough room to honour and acknowledge everyone, thirty long-term McCain employees and retirees were asked to name candidates for a list of 36 From the Ground up t he BeG inninG 37 CANADA Ken Antworth Dwight Arbeau Camile Beaulieu Alberta Bell Nelson Bernier George Bourgoin Bob Brown Ken Brown Dan Chartier Bob Chernecki Tom Davidson Wayne Devine Steve Dowbiggin Marie Giberson Doug Howatt Bob Hurst Burt Inman Harold Kilfoil Gilles Laforge Kevin Lelievre Angus “Gus” Lyall Claude Lord Alden Lunn Peter Mabee Wanda McCarthy Wilfred McCarthy Dave McInroy Ron Minty Alton Morrell Ken Nichols Elaine Norton Dave O’Brien Bev O’Keefe David Parfitt Ray Peterson Jean Pinette Madeline Post Reg Reid Arthur Rioux Winston Ruff Ken Seeley Leonard Slipp Peter Smith Stan Spavold Les Thomas Allen Tompkins Lloyd Tompkins Jeff Vesey John Walker Bud White Gilbert White Gilbert Whittaker employees who became legendary and who helped build the company in some significant way. Many more could be added to this list if space allowed. The real aim of this list, however, is to convey to readers that the success of McCain Foods Limited is based on many more people, at all levels of the company, than those who are given voice or face here. UNITED KINGDoM Gussie Archer Robin Batten Peter Beswick John Collins Geoff Dent Pat Drummond Peter Eddleston Dave Ferrar Pam Hume Colin Jenkinson Julie Leivers Allan Milton Don Morris John Sissens Barry Tetley Bob Thompson Ernie Thompson AUSTrALIA / NEW ZEALAND Warner Blake Damien Varnis Ian Wilmot Bob Wilson Trevor Wilson CoNTINENTAL EUroPE Rinus Ars Rob Buurma Bram de Kok Anton Roos Ad Traas oTHEr Pierre Chamas Steve Prater
Page 2 and 3: chapter title i
Page 4 and 5: Produced on the occasion of its 50t
Page 6 and 7: viii From the Ground up chapter tit
Page 8 and 9: Janice Wismer at the McCain offices
Page 10 and 11: A.D. McCain and McCain Produce It w
Page 12 and 13: The Florenceville plant up and runn
Page 14 and 15: LEFT: Harrison and Wallace at the s
Page 16 and 17: TOP: Jean Lawler and team in the te
Page 18 and 19: TOP LEFT: Bob Ferguson, New Brunswi
Page 20 and 21: ABOVE: Wallace and Dick McWhirter i
Page 22 and 23: Wallace Margaret McCain likes to sa
Page 24 and 25: LEFT: Wallace and Harrison listen a
Page 28 and 29: CHAPTER TWO Crossing the AtlAntiC H
Page 30 and 31: Wallace and Harrison in 1967, at th
Page 32 and 33: LEFt: Mrs. A.D. McCain and her four
Page 34 and 35: Scouting a field of a purpleflowere
Page 36 and 37: LEFt: Mac and Sheila McCarthy with
Page 38 and 39: McCain gives out free samples to la
Page 40 and 41: AbovE: Print ads for the So Good fo
Page 42 and 43: Canadian, eh? During a royal visit
Page 44 and 45: Annemarie Oosterhoff Harbo, country
Page 46 and 47: German sales team in 1981 at a meet
Page 48 and 49: TOP: Truck advertising “three-sta
Page 50 and 51: Paul van der Wel, CEO, Continental
Page 52 and 53: Rolando Palazzi (right) receives th
Page 54 and 55: LEFT: Celebrating McCain’s first
Page 56 and 57: Potato variety and seed potato prod
Page 58 and 59: The Matougues plant, 2007. This new
Page 60 and 61: CHAPTER FOUR Down UnDer In 1971, Wa
Page 62 and 63: Milton Rodda and technical services
Page 64 and 65: Dennis Jesson (centre), production
Page 66 and 67: Plant manager Bill Goodridge and pr
Page 68 and 69: Basil Hargrove, CEO, Asia Pacific,
Page 70 and 71: As has been the case wherever McCai
Page 72 and 73: ABOVE and LEFT: Fire at the Florenc
Page 74 and 75: Cutter cannons. This approach depen
Page 76 and 77:
Just as McCain Foods had little exp
Page 78 and 79:
LEFT: View from the airstrip near H
Page 80 and 81:
TOP LEFT: Nancy Oliveira and Suzy T
Page 82 and 83:
Cedric Ritchie (centre) of the Bank
Page 84 and 85:
TOP: McCain produces an assortment
Page 86 and 87:
LEFT: Harrison and Billie with thei
Page 88 and 89:
Kathryn McCain chairs the McCain Fo
Page 90 and 91:
Wallace McCain Scott McCain Eleanor
Page 92 and 93:
markets, including the United State
Page 94 and 95:
McCain won a Supplier of the Year a
Page 96 and 97:
Shepody harvest, western Idaho. ope
Page 98 and 99:
LEFt: Randy Myles (left) vice-presi
Page 100 and 101:
McCain desserts for the food servic
Page 102 and 103:
CHAPTER SEVEN New worlds to CoNquer
Page 104 and 105:
lEFt: Mark McCain (centre) chats wi
Page 106 and 107:
Employees of McCain South Africa. p
Page 108 and 109:
Manual harvesting and bagging seed
Page 110 and 111:
lEFt: Adolfo Lopez Rouger with Edua
Page 112 and 113:
lEFt: McCain Argentina management,
Page 114 and 115:
lEFt: A McDonald’s on a busy Shan
Page 116 and 117:
McCain India: In the middle row, fi
Page 118:
A McCain International group on a 1
Page 122 and 123:
Dale Morrison exchanges ideas with
Page 124 and 125:
ToP lEFT: Barb Corey of the McCain
Page 126 and 127:
ToP: Paul Tellier, an Opco board me
Page 128 and 129:
Adolfo Lopez Rouger, CEO McCain Sou
Page 130 and 131:
Acknowledgements From Dale Morrison
Page 132 and 133:
Fishery Products International (FPI
Page 134:
Simplot, Jack, 6-7 (See also J.R. S
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