From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

TOP: Harrison the horse,
Mac McCarthy, Harrison
the man, Herman Verloop
(managing director, McCain
Europa BV), and Henk van
Tuyl after the purchase of
the Hoofddorp factory, 1978.
BOTTOM: The Hoofddorp
factory, 1978.
the matter still wasn’t settled. Harrison
McCain, as was often the case at such
meetings, hadn’t said much, preferring
to listen as the conversation went back
and forth and take a few notes.
Finally, he intervened. “Boys,” he said,
“that was a great conversation. Great.
Lotta input. Now here’s what we’re going
to do. We’re going to call it McCain.
We’re going to call it McCain. Now let’s
go and eat.”
Today, McCain products, bearing the
McCain brand, have a strong position in
Germany’s retail market for frozen foods.
McClure understood from the start
that, if McCain was to be a major force
in Europe, much of that success would
have to come from France. Along with Germany and Italy, France has one of the
largest populations in western Europe, potatoes are an important part of the French
diet, and the country has an important potato-growing region. In the early 1970s,
McClure and Hanscom scouted France, looking for a site to build a plant. But the
company decided to put the project on hold since it was planning to build a second
British plant, to open at Whittlesey in 1976, that could supply the French market for
the time being.
Early one morning in the mid-1970s, McClure and Harrison McCain drove up to
see Henk van Tuyl, in Gameren, about an hour from the Amsterdam airport. Van
Tuyl owned the largest potato business in the Netherlands and had three french fry
factories. Harrison wanted to buy the business. He decided on a direct approach.
“Mr. van Tuyl,” he said, “I want to buy your factory, and I’ll give you good money for
it now. If you don’t sell it to us now, we may come back later, but don’t expect to get
the same price.”
Van Tuyl wasn’t at all impressed by the overconfident Canadian in the black fedora.
Van Tuyl was a proud man, and he wasn’t used to being talked to in that way.
Nor was he going to do business with Harrison McCain.
But in 1978, finding himself short of cash, he decided to
sell his Hoofddorp french fry plant. He sent his second
in command, Tony van Leersum, to the United States to
look for a buyer. Cargill, the huge U.S. agriculture company,
was one possibility; Simplot was another. The one
company Van Leersum had been ordered not to talk to
was McCain.
In the international potato business, word travels
fast. Mac McCarthy had heard that Van Leersum was
in the United States and suspected he might be trying
to sell a french fry factory. McCarthy alerted Harrison,
who phoned Van Leersum in Othello, Washington, where he was trying to interest
french fry company owner Pete Taggares in the Dutch plant.
He said, “Mr. Van Leersum, we hear you are in the United States and that this is
possibly about finding a partner for your business, as this is not the best year that
you’ve had in potatoes. Why don’t you come over to Boston, and I’ll have somebody
pick you up in our plane, and I’ll put you on the next plane back home. Let’s have
a talk.”
Van Leersum now was faced with a dilemma. Cargill and Simplot had expressed
interest but neither was prepared yet to make an offer. The Van Tuyl business needed
a cash infusion immediately. Van Leersum knew Harrison’s earlier meeting with
Van Tuyl hadn’t gone well. Nevertheless, Van Leersum decided to disregard his
boss’s orders and go to Florenceville to see what McCain had to say. Harrison said
he would have a serious offer ready in two weeks and wanted to conclude a deal
quickly. So Van Leersum went home and persuaded Van Tuyl to give the Canadian
company another chance.
A week later, Harrison went to Amsterdam to meet with Van Tuyl. This time,
instead of bluntly making a take-it-or-leave-it offer, he raised what he knew was
Van Tuyl’s favourite subject: horses. Van Tuyl owned seventy-five of them. Harrison
said, “If we do a deal, you have to give me one of your horses.”
Van Tuyl was delighted at this. Wallace paid a quick visit, and the deal was made
the next day. At a celebratory dinner, Van Tuyl presented McCain with a piece of
paper, transferring ownership of the tallest horse in his stable. The horse had been renamed
Harrison. “I am giving you the horse FOB,” he said, meaning that the receiver
would have to pay the freight.
76 From the Ground up
Across the chA nnel 77
Tony van Leersum, Harrison,
and George McClure,
Rotterdam, 1978.