From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited
From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited
From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited
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<strong>McCain</strong> Alfresco pesto<br />
tortellini; dinners on <strong>the</strong><br />
Ballarat production line;<br />
Griff’s curried prawns.<br />
smallest of its retail categories. Now it’s <strong>the</strong> largest, and <strong>the</strong> company works hard to<br />
maintain <strong>the</strong> category’s strength. It employs a chef to create recipes. Then it’s up to <strong>the</strong><br />
food technologists to determine whe<strong>the</strong>r it can be profitably mass produced. Before<br />
a new dinner, or any o<strong>the</strong>r product, is sent to <strong>the</strong> stores, sensory testing is done by<br />
volunteer community members.<br />
The lineup of dinners changes constantly as new ones are launched and older ones<br />
withdrawn. To cater to Australia’s sizeable Asian population, <strong>the</strong>re are several Asianflavoured<br />
dinners, as well as a line of stir-fry vegetables. Hargrove points out that <strong>the</strong><br />
advent of <strong>the</strong> microwave oven has been a big boost to <strong>McCain</strong>’s continued success in<br />
both <strong>the</strong> dinner and pizza categories, and <strong>the</strong> quality of both has steadily improved.<br />
Pizza has been a <strong>McCain</strong> strength in Australia from <strong>the</strong> beginning. Its first success<br />
in <strong>the</strong> retail market was a product called pizza subs – a french bread stick with a pizza<br />
topping. The popularity of this product also helped <strong>McCain</strong> boost sales of its french<br />
fries to supermarkets. By <strong>the</strong> late 1980s, however, sales of pizza subs had declined and<br />
<strong>the</strong> product was dropped. <strong>McCain</strong> relaunched it in 2006 to great success.<br />
Ano<strong>the</strong>r big success for <strong>McCain</strong> in Australia is Potato Cakes, <strong>the</strong> credit for which<br />
belongs to Boyle and Wilkinson. Boyle, who had worked with John Clements at<br />
Cerebos before joining <strong>McCain</strong> in 1984, was amazed to discover on his arrival that<br />
<strong>the</strong> marketing department consisted of one secretary, while research and development<br />
consisted of Wilkinson.<br />
Soon after starting his new job, Boyle travelled to Florenceville, where he met<br />
Wallace <strong>McCain</strong>. He presented Wilkinson’s proposal for potato cakes. A popular<br />
snack food available in every fish-and-chip shop in Australia, a potato cake is a<br />
thinly sliced piece of potato covered in tempura batter. Wilkinson’s idea was to make<br />
a frozen version for <strong>the</strong> food service market with <strong>the</strong> potato bits left over<br />
from <strong>the</strong> french fry production.<br />
“You can’t be serious that people would actually want to eat this,” said<br />
Wallace. “But it’s your market and you know best. Good luck.”<br />
Potato Cakes quickly became <strong>McCain</strong> Australia’s bestselling specialty<br />
item. They still are.<br />
Many Australians and New Zealanders are worried about obesity and<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r health issues, yet <strong>the</strong> reaction against fast food has not been as<br />
widespread or intense as in <strong>the</strong> United Kingdom or <strong>the</strong> rest of Europe.<br />
Yung believes <strong>McCain</strong> pre-empted <strong>the</strong> issue by offering products that<br />
appealed to health-conscious consumers before <strong>the</strong> obesity issue came<br />
to public prominence. In <strong>the</strong> early 1990s, <strong>the</strong> company launched <strong>McCain</strong><br />
Healthy Choice, a range of low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie meals.<br />
The Healthy Choice brand has since been extended to include french<br />
fries and pizza.<br />
In addition, <strong>McCain</strong> Australia is <strong>the</strong> retail market leader in vegetables<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r than potatoes. As mo<strong>the</strong>r always said, vegetables are good for you.<br />
“That creates a halo effect for <strong>McCain</strong>,” says Yung. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, <strong>the</strong><br />
company’s prominence in vegetables casts all its products in a healthy<br />
light. “When I joined twenty years ago, <strong>the</strong> consumer would have thought<br />
of <strong>McCain</strong> as fast food. <strong>McCain</strong> stood for french fries and pizza. Today<br />
consumers think of <strong>McCain</strong> as an all around trusted healthy brand. So<br />
<strong>the</strong>re is quite a different image of our brand, one that has been built up<br />
over <strong>the</strong> years.”<br />
The health issue is one that <strong>McCain</strong> can control to an extent by ensuring<br />
that it continues to offer wholesome products and communicates <strong>the</strong><br />
nutritional qualities of those products to consumers. What <strong>the</strong> company<br />
cannot control is <strong>the</strong> wea<strong>the</strong>r. In late 2006, Australia, <strong>the</strong> driest of <strong>the</strong><br />
world’s continents, suffered <strong>the</strong> worst drought in its history. The flows of<br />
water into <strong>the</strong> major rivers that sustain <strong>the</strong> country’s agriculture were at<br />
record lows, grain harvests were down sharply, and some cattle ranchers<br />
were selling <strong>the</strong>ir livestock because <strong>the</strong>y couldn’t afford feed.<br />
Potato growers were happy to see <strong>the</strong> rains at <strong>the</strong> beginning of 2007<br />
116 <strong>From</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Ground</strong> up<br />
down under 117