From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

harrison
Harrison McCain liked to socialize. One of Harrison and
Wallace’s methods for collecting information useful to
McCain Foods was simply to call up other companies and
ask if they could drop by for an interview and a tour. Terry
Bird, who ran Day & Ross before becoming vice-president
of corporate development of McCain Foods, was often told
to have a look at one or another U.S. trucking company.
Harrison would say, “Just phone them up and say you’re
in town, and they’ll welcome you in.”
To his surprise, Bird found Harrison was usually right
about that: “I used to travel with Harrison, and this happened
all the time. One time in Minneapolis, Harrison
picked up the phone and then off we went to see the president
of Pillsbury.”
That’s how Harrison got to know Jim Pattison, the
Vancouver billionaire whose company, the Jim Pattison
Group, owns an array of enterprises in food retailing, magazine
distribution, and broadcasting, as well as the Ripley’s
Believe It or Not entertainment company.
According to Bird, one day when Harrison was in
Vancouver he called Pattison and said, “I’m Harrison McCain,
I’ve heard a lot about you, I’d like to come and see you.”
LEFT: Harrison with then prime minister Jean Chrétien and
Russian president Vladimir Putin, 2000. Putin was meeting
with Canadian business leaders on this, his first visit to
Canada. Marilyn Strong, Harrison’s companion during his
latter years, is on the far left.
BELOW: Harrison mans the barbeque at a Florenceville
party, along with Malcolm McLeod, then agriculture minister
of New Brunswick.
They became close friends. Pattison often attended
parties thrown by Harrison in New Brunswick and was also
present at the opening of the Coaldale processing plant in
Alberta. Billie and Harrison McCain were weekend guests at
Pattison’s lavish desert retreat in Palm Springs, California, a
house famed for its collection of memorabilia left behind
by its former owner, Frank Sinatra.
On another occasion, Harrison called Conrad Black at
Black’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, and was invited to
visit. He later told Bird that Black seemed nervous throughout
the entire meeting. “He kept waiting for the other shoe
to drop – does he want to sell me something, does he want
to buy something?”
There was no other shoe. Black was an interesting character,
and Harrison McCain was simply curious to meet him.
is instantly connected to anywhere in McCain’s global empire by telephone and
internet.
Florenceville is a company town, and the ties between company and community
remain strong. In a medical emergency, any local resident, whether McCain employee
or not, is transported to a major hospital on a McCain plane.
McCain also covers half the cost of beautification projects, such as planting flower
beds, in Florenceville and nearby towns. Beautification committees in each town
were set up during the 1980s at Harrison McCain’s urging and under the guidance of
his wife, Billie.
Bruce Terry, who joined McCain in 1990 as CFO, recalls that Harrison McCain
raised the issue of living in Florenceville when interviewing him. “He was very concerned
about the way people fit the business,” says Terry. “He knew not everyone was
comfortable moving to a small town. He interviewed my wife for an hour to make
sure she would fit. Because you need a certain maturity and a certain family relationship
and character to fit in.”
Some potential employees don’t want to live in a rural area far from the urban
amenities to which they are accustomed. On the other hand, McCain’s presence in
Florenceville has advantages for some, including those employees whose spouses are
farmers, with no benefits, such as a prescription drug plan. The McCain job is of
greater value to such employees than it would be to a family in which both spouses
had benefits through their workplace.
Also, the small-town environment facilitates communication among employees.
“Because people know each other and talk, you have an incredible real-time communications
system that is not based on technology,” Terry points out. “You have a
constant communication about the business in terms of living and breathing what’s
going on.”
David Morgan, a retired long-time McCain employee, has been mayor of Florenceville
since 1995. Although McCain is the financial engine of the area, it doesn’t
interfere in local politics, he says. The company got a tax break when it started, but
now it pays taxes at the same rate as any other business.
The hiring of Bruce Terry in 1990 as CFO signalled a shift in the way McCain Foods
was run. Previously, the vice-presidents of McCain Foods Canada, the operating
company in Canada, also acted as officers for the companies outside Canada. Carl
140 f rom the Ground up
the home front 141
TOP: Bruce Terry, former CFO,
McCain Foods Limited.
MIddLE: Arnold Park, CEO,
McCain Foods (Canada) Ltd.
(retired), 2005.
BOTTOM: Michael Campbell,
vice-president and general
counsel, McCain Foods
Limited, 2005.