From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

LEFT: George McClure, 1992.
MIddLE: (left to right)
Des Doucette, John Corey,
Tim Bliss, Cor Koster, Colin
Richardson, and Dave
Munslow attend a 1985
energy conservation
conference in Europe.
rIGhT: Terry Bird, vicepresident
of corporate
development and emerging
markets, 2005.
and upgraded. As of 2007, Grand Falls was producing juice, both frozen and in aseptic
packaging, as well as pizza, french fries, and other potato products. Three other french
fry plants were added to the McCain chain of factories – McCain built a plant in Portage
la Prairie, Manitoba, in 1979 and another in Coaldale, Alberta, in 2000. And it bought
Midwest Foods in Carberry, Manitoba, in 2004. The Coaldale plant produces french
fries for the Far East markets, while most of the production from the Manitoba factories
goes to the United States.
In Wallace McCain’s opinion, McCain Foods should also have a french fry plant on
Prince Edward Island, a province famous for its large potato crop. C.M. McLean Ltd.
owned a struggling frozen foods factory in New Annan, Prince Edward Island. When
McLean put it up for sale in 1979, Irving, Wallace and Harrison’s former employer,
snapped it up. The plant was Irving’s entry into the frozen french fry business; its
Cavendish Farms brand remains a McCain competitor.
McCain had passed up a chance to bid on the McLean factory. “Not buying it was
a mistake,” Wallace admits. “We thought no one would buy it because it had almost
gone broke three times.” However, McCain then built a potato specialties plant in
Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island.
George McClure, who spearheaded McCain’s expansion into Europe, became
the first chief buyer of companies as head of corporate development from 1979 to
1995. He played a key role in McCain’s expansion by buying companies in Europe,
the United States, and Canada. In 1995, McClure retired and Harrison McCain offered
the job to Terry Bird, then chairman and CEO of the New Brunswick Telephone
Company. Previously, Bird had been president and CEO of Day & Ross, McCain’s
trucking company.
148 f rom the Ground up
harrison
As a boss, Harrison McCain was tough but fair. He and
Wallace wanted their managers to try new ideas, and they
understood that new ideas don’t always work out.
“Harrison told me he was always quite careful about
criticizing the marketing department because he wanted it
to try new product ideas and new promotions,” says Allison
McCain. “New ideas are expensive, and the failures are
expensive. But he didn’t want people to stop trying. You
can’t tell people we want you to be innovative but if you
get it wrong we’re going to drop on you like a ton of bricks
– because then nothing would happen.”
Harrison expected people to work hard but not at the
expense of their health or family life. He didn’t like to see
his managers working late at night. On two occasions,
Florenceville mayor David Morgan, then a McCain manager,
was sent home. Once, Harrison came into the office at
10 p.m. and spotted Morgan at his desk.
“What are you doing here, David?”
“I’m working.”
“I see that. That’ll keep until tomorrow. Good night.”
“Well, I need to …”
“Good night.”
Harrison was named to Maclean’s magazine’s
1990 honour roll.
Anil Rastogi, who took over as head of information
technology in 1995, was warned that Harrison had little
patience for long presentations. But Rastogi had worked
out a new strategy for IT that called for the centralization
of some functions. It wasn’t something that could be
explained quickly. Rastogi decided to ignore the warnings
and plunge ahead. He was right to do so. Harrison listened
to him for six hours. The issues were new to him; he knew
how important they were and wanted to understand.
At the end, he told Rastogi, “I think you know what you
are doing. I think this is important for our company and
growth. You have my support.”
Harrison McCain was a bundle of energy. “He was a fast
walker and a fast talker,” says Marilyn Strong, who was his
secretary and assistant for four decades and had to learn
to walk fast to keep up with him. He was extremely sociable
and loved parties, but he sometimes craved solitude
and quiet. After a long day at the office, he liked to relax in
his book-lined den and read biographies, novels, and business
books.
His interests weren’t confined to business. He was a
supporter of cultural institutions, especially those in New
Brunswick, and was keenly interested in politics. When
Pierre Trudeau ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party
in 1968, Harrison McCain was one of his earliest supporters.
“I’m a Liberal,” he told the Financial Post Magazine,
“a middle-of-the-road, hair-to-the-left-of-centre Liberal.
I believe in social justice and taxes.”
He could talk to anyone and give that person his full
attention. “He was equally at ease with the Queen or Fidel
Castro or the guy on the plant floor,” says Strong.
Not just a fast talker and a fast walker, Harrison was
also a fast driver. One morning, en route from Florenceville
to Grand Falls, he was stopped for speeding. As the RCMP
officer wrote out a ticket, Harrison asked if he would still
be patrolling the highway that afternoon. The officer said
he would.
“Then you might as well give me two tickets,” said
Harrison, “because that’s when I’m coming back.”
the home front 149