Background & Overview
McCain Foods Limited is a privately owned company established in 1957 by four brothers Harrison McCain, Wallace McCain, Robert McCain, and Andrew McCain in their hometown of Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada. In its first year, the company’s 30 employees produced 1,500 lbs. of product an hour and earned sales of $152,678.
In 1960, The company started offering its frozen potato products to consumers outside of Canada – first to the United Kingdom, and later to Australia and the United States. In the mid-60s, McCain chips become popular in the U.K. In 1968, McCain begins marketing in Australia. In 1969, McCain opened a plant in Scarborough, England.
In 1976, McCain started producing frozen pizzas. New pizza facilities were opened in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, in the U.K and Australia. In 1979, McCain completed a new French fry plant in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba.
In 1997, McCain bought the Ore-Ida Food Service frozen French fry and appetizer business, including its five production facilities – a first step to McCain becoming a world leader in frozen appetizers.
McCain Foods has continued to expand steadily with new plants in Canada, the U.S, China, India, Mexico, and South America. It also embraced the new century with entry into South Africa, acquiring a French fry plant in Delmas and two frozen vegetable plants. The year 2000 was also the year McCain built its potato processing technology centre in Florenceville as part of its commitment to researching the best agriculture and potato practices.
The number of company operations around the world continued to grow with the purchase of additional food processing facilities in Canada, a frozen food company in Taiwan, a roasted vegetable producer in the U.S., and two frozen Chinese food manufacturers in Canada. In 2001, the acquisition of Anchor Food Products created the world’s largest appetizer company.
And in 2008 –– a new $65 million state-of-the-art potato processing...