From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

AbovE: Print ads for the
So Good for You campaign,
which preceded the It’s All
Good campaign.
AbovE: The career of a chip:
an It’s All Good campaign
print ad.
the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation. And, in 2005, McCain was named a
British superbrand by the Superbrands Organization, which promotes achievements
in branding.
Peter Burman joined McCain in 1970 and has spent his entire career with the company,
mostly in manufacturing jobs of increasing responsibility. He was responsible
for production in Burgos, Spain, then became plant manager in Hoofddorp, the
Netherlands; then manager of the pizza plant in Scarborough; manufacturing director
for McCain Foods USA; manufacturing director of McCain Alimentaire in Harnes,
France; and then production director for McCain GB. In 2006, he was appointed the
British company’s manufacturing and innovations director.
Burman exemplifies McCain’s manufacturing culture. Having started the process
of management training and people development in Britain, he has seen many
changes, not least in processing technology. Larger scale production lines, automation,
computerization, and electronic defect removal have dramatically increased
production per man-hour. Meanwhile, hot-air drying before frying and coating have
significantly improved product quality.
Perhaps the biggest change Burman has witnessed is in the french fry market itself,
from rapid growth to slow growth. “You just assumed it was going to keep growing
at 15 percent a year,” he says. “Because it was growing, the biggest problem was just
supplying sales and keeping up. But in later years, the problem is getting more sales
to keep the factories going.”
Ian Cameron, too, has had an international career with McCain. In 1972, Joe
Palmer hired him straight out of university to work for Day & Ross, McCain’s trucking
company. Within a year, he had joined McCain Foods at Florenceville and later
worked as plant manager in Australia before becoming manufacturing director for
McCain Foods USA in Maine. In 1983, while Cameron was working in the United
States, Harrison McCain asked him if he was interested in the position of factory
manager at the Whittlesey plant.
Cameron said, “Not really. I’ve been away from home for five years.”
Harrison said, “You’ll enjoy it. Just go for a couple of years, we’ll get somebody else
trained and you can come back.”
So Cameron agreed to go to England for two years. That was in 1983. In 2007, he
was still there. “Business was growing like mad; I had an important job. After a while,
Retired McCain GB employees with management, 2007. Front row: (left to right) Robin Negus, Peter Burman, Val Walker, Hal Kinder (retired),
Pam Procter, Mac McCarthy (retired),* Mick Baddley (retired),* Ken Campbell (retired), Ken Wilmot (retired).*
Back row: Dave Chelley, Richard Harris (retired), John Young, Bob Briggs (retired),* Mick Robinson (retired), Steve Bullock (retired), Eion
Johnston, Dave Elliott (retired),* Malcolm Howes (retired), Fred Johnson (retired), John Blackburn (retired), Derek Hood (retired), Doug
Hague (retired),* Alan Pickup (retired),* Nick Vermont, Alan Drury (retired),* Ian Cameron.
Asterisks indicate retirees with thirty-five years or more of service. The other retirees all have between twenty-five and thirty-five years of service.
this became home.” He has never lost his Maritime accent, but he has two grown sons
who speak like the Englishmen they are.
Having worked in Australia and the United States under Wallace’s supervision,
and in the United Kingdom under Harrison’s, Cameron is well placed to compare
the two McCain brothers who built the company. “Wallace is more of an operations
person. Dealing with Wallace, you had to justify every penny you spent,
whereas Harrison was a little bit less critical. When we had a meeting, he would
have more to say about marketing and sales. They were great as a team. I sat in
many meetings with either or both of them and also with Mac McCarthy, who was
like the third brother. They had enthusiasm and foresight. Sometimes you didn’t
have to have 99 percent of the facts. They would just say, ‘That’s the right thing to
do, let’s do it.’”
62 From the g round up
crossing the AtlA ntic 63