From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited
From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited
From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Canadian, eh?<br />
During a royal visit to New Brunswick, <strong>the</strong>n premier Frank<br />
McKenna mentioned to Prince Charles that <strong>the</strong> province<br />
is <strong>the</strong> home base of an important multinational company,<br />
<strong>McCain</strong> <strong>Foods</strong>.<br />
Not so, replied <strong>the</strong> Prince. He was well acquainted with<br />
<strong>McCain</strong>, he said, and knew it was a British company.<br />
The Prince’s error was a common one. In fact, few people<br />
know that <strong>the</strong> world’s largest producer of french fries<br />
originated in <strong>the</strong> Maritime province of New Brunswick and<br />
still maintains factories <strong>the</strong>re and offices in <strong>the</strong> village of<br />
Florenceville.<br />
Mac McCarthy recalls a meeting attended by a British<br />
agriculture minister who cited “<strong>the</strong> great example of that<br />
British company <strong>McCain</strong> <strong>Foods</strong>, which started from small<br />
beginnings in Scarborough.”<br />
Informed <strong>McCain</strong> was Canadian, he shot back, “It’s not. I<br />
know <strong>the</strong> people <strong>the</strong>re, and it’s definitely an English company.”<br />
Tony van Leersum remembers flying from Florenceville to<br />
Chicago in 1985 with Harrison and Wallace <strong>McCain</strong> to try to<br />
66<br />
<strong>From</strong> <strong>the</strong> g round up<br />
persuade McDonald’s CEO Fred Turner to buy <strong>McCain</strong> french<br />
fries. “You must be tired after that long flight,” Turner said.<br />
The <strong>McCain</strong> executives were baffled by <strong>the</strong> comment until<br />
<strong>the</strong>y realized that Turner assumed <strong>the</strong>y had flown in from<br />
Britain where, he thought, <strong>McCain</strong> had its head office.<br />
Unlike IKEA, which makes a point in its advertising to<br />
identify itself as Swedish, <strong>McCain</strong> has chosen not to emphasize<br />
its origins. This, says Nick Vermont, CEO of <strong>McCain</strong><br />
<strong>Foods</strong> GB, “is a reflection of <strong>the</strong> considerable autonomy each<br />
of <strong>the</strong> local companies has had in <strong>the</strong> areas of marketing<br />
and advertising and <strong>the</strong> way in which <strong>the</strong> brand is presented<br />
to <strong>the</strong> consumer. We found that consumers in<br />
Britain do not think of <strong>McCain</strong> as being Canadian – British<br />
or perhaps Scottish, but certainly not Canadian.”<br />
Harrison <strong>McCain</strong> cared about whe<strong>the</strong>r people bought his<br />
product, not whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y knew <strong>the</strong> company’s nationality:<br />
“We’re a British company in Britain and a Canadian company<br />
in Canada.”<br />
in <strong>the</strong> early part of <strong>the</strong> 1980s to centralize <strong>the</strong> company’s<br />
financial administration. The various <strong>McCain</strong> companies<br />
around <strong>the</strong> world were asked to send <strong>the</strong>ir financial figures<br />
by satellite to Florenceville, where a monthly profitand-loss<br />
statement was to be created. Mac refused.<br />
“No financial figures leave our office before I have had<br />
a look at <strong>the</strong>m and agree with <strong>the</strong> conclusions,” he said.<br />
“Not even to Harrison. I will not agree to anything that<br />
means that Harrison will have figures before I have seen<br />
and agreed to <strong>the</strong>m.” The program was not implemented.<br />
(By 2007, however, 97 percent of <strong>McCain</strong>’s transactions<br />
worldwide were being processed at <strong>the</strong> Florenceville Data Processing Centre, but<br />
each operating managing director or president sees <strong>the</strong> results before <strong>the</strong>y are published<br />
in Canada.)<br />
Yet, Mac did understand <strong>the</strong> need to change with <strong>the</strong> times. In 1996, Anil Rastogi,<br />
corporate vice-president and chief information officer, wanted <strong>the</strong> U.K. operation to<br />
buy £300,000 worth of personal computers. He was told, “Mac will never agree to<br />
do this.” So Rastogi went to see him in England. He entered <strong>the</strong> office prepared for a<br />
difficult hour of explaining. Mac started by asking him why <strong>McCain</strong> should spend so<br />
much money on new computers. Rastogi, in five minutes, summed up his reasons.<br />
Mac said, “We cannot stop progress, can we?” and authorized <strong>the</strong> expenditure on<br />
<strong>the</strong> spot.<br />
Success in business never happens without risk, <strong>the</strong> risk being <strong>the</strong> possibility of failure.<br />
Mac McCarthy took a risk when he left a secure job to launch a small, unknown<br />
Canadian company in Britain. The <strong>McCain</strong>s also took a risk in Britain and continued<br />
to take risks as <strong>the</strong>y planted <strong>the</strong> <strong>McCain</strong> flag around <strong>the</strong> world. “For many years, maybe<br />
ten, as with any small business growing rapidly, you bet <strong>the</strong> bundle every year, year<br />
after year,” Harrison <strong>McCain</strong> told Executive magazine in 1984. “If you’re wrong once,<br />
you’re out. We kept pushing <strong>the</strong> business as hard as we could, borrowing all we could,<br />
building and borrowing and building. We were risking it all on deal after deal.”<br />
By successfully establishing itself in Britain, <strong>McCain</strong> <strong>Foods</strong> acquired a strong position<br />
in a market twice <strong>the</strong> size of its home market. And just across <strong>the</strong> English<br />
Channel, <strong>the</strong>re were more deals to make and o<strong>the</strong>r markets to conquer.<br />
crossing <strong>the</strong> AtlA ntic<br />
AbovE: Mac and Wallace.<br />
FACING PAGE: Harrison<br />
and Mac at <strong>the</strong> Scarborough<br />
plant. Mac has just received<br />
his twenty-five-year pin.<br />
67