McCain Foods Limited
Company typePrivate
IndustryFrozen food
FoundedFlorenceville, New Brunswick, Canada (1957)
FoundersHarrison McCain
Wallace McCain
Headquarters439 King Street West, 5th Floor,
Toronto, Ontario
,
Canada
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
James Scott McCain - Chairman
Max Koeune - President and CEO of McCain Foods Limited
Danielle Barran - President of McCain Foods (Canada)
ProductsFrench fries, appetizers, vegetables, desserts, entrees, and oven meals
RevenueIncrease $14 billion CAD (2023)
Number of employees
20,000 (2023)[1]
Websitemccain.com

McCain Foods Limited is a Canadian multinational frozen food company established in 1957 in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada.[2]

It is the world's largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, with 1 in 4 french fries in the world being a McCain fry.[3] Its major competitors are Simplot and Lamb Weston.[4][5]

History

A plate with McCain Smiles, a face-shaped mashed potato bite.

McCain Foods was co-founded in 1957 by brothers Harrison McCain and Wallace McCain with the help of their two older brothers.[6][7]

In their first year of production, the company hired 30 employees and grossed over $150,000 in sales.[8][6] During the 1970s–1990s, the company expanded into additional prepared food markets including frozen pizza and vegetables.[9]

As of 2017, the company is the world's largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, and has over 20,000 employees and 47 production facilities in six continents. The company generates more than C$8.5 billion in annual sales.[10]

Based on 2014 sales, it is the 19th largest private company in Canada, according to The Globe and Mail's Report on Business.[11] Nancy McCain, of the McCain family, is married to former Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau.[12] In 2020, McCain Foods won the Lausanne Index Prize – Best of Packaging.[13]

UK operations

McCain Foods' UK subsidiary has a factory in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and sponsored the former football stadium in the town until the football team was dissolved on June 20, 2007.[14] There is also a plant at Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire and a cold store in Easton, Lincolnshire.

A legal case in which McCain Foods (GB) Ltd sued Eco-Tec (Europe) Ltd. was decided by the High Court in 2011. McCain had ordered a system intended to remove hydrogen sulphide from biogas produced in its waste water treatment plant, which would allow the gas to produce power and heat for the Whittlesey plant. The system proved to be "impossible to commission successfully" and so McCain sued for compensation. The court's ruling confirmed that Eco-Tec were in breach of their contract.[15] Legally, the court took a broadly inclusive approach to the scope of the losses incurred by McCain and the damages due to them, declining to treat a number of items as "consequential losses" for which Eco-Tec sought protection under a contractual exclusion clause.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Our business brands". Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  2. ^ "Company history". McCain Foods. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012.
  3. ^ Kennison, Heather (May 3, 2017). "Update: McCain Foods plans $200 million, 180 job expansion of Burley plant". Twin Falls Times-News. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  4. ^ Philpott, Tom (November 14, 1014). "Will This New GMO Potato Take Off? McDonald's Has Spoken". Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  5. ^ "Conagra Brands completes Lamb Weston spinoff, name change". AP News. Associated Press. November 10, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  6. ^ a b The Associated Press (May 14, 2011). "McCain Foods co-founder Wallace McCain dies at 81". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
  7. ^ Waldie, Paul (March 20, 2004). "McCain's passing raises questions". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
  8. ^ "McCain Foods". CareerBeacon. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  9. ^ "McCain Foods co-founder dies". CBC News. May 14, 2011. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
  10. ^ Nunes, Keith (April 5, 2017). "McCain Foods USA to invest $200 million in french fry manufacturing expansion". Baking Business. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
  11. ^ "2012 Rankings of Canada's 350 biggest private companies". The Globe and Mail. June 28, 2012. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  12. ^ Parkin, Tom (December 4, 2017). "Morneau scandal shows middle class was never Liberals' top concern". The Toronto Sun.
  13. ^ "2020 L.I.P. Best of Packaging - McCain Foods". Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  14. ^ "Celebrating 50 Years of McCain in Scarborough". Yorkshire Coast Radio. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  15. ^ Allen, A., McCain Foods (GB) Ltd v Eco-Tec (Europe) Ltd [2011 EWHC 66 (TCC) 27/1/11], Gatehouse Chambers, published February 14, 2011, accessed January 16, 2023
  16. ^ England and Wales High Court (Technology and Construction Court), McCain Foods Gb Ltd v Eco-Tec (Europe) Ltd. (2011) EWHC 66 (TCC), delivered January 27, 2011, accessed January 16, 2023

External links

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