As a food manufacturer, our business is driven by good people, making good food, from good ingredients – and the result is food that makes people feel good. But it’s not just about the food we make, it’s about how we conduct ourselves in every aspect of our business. From farmer and customer relationships to sustainable agricultural processes – we strive to make every element of our business good. This philosophy underpins everything we do.
In 1957 Wallace and Harrison McCain, along with their brothers Robert and Andrew, founded McCain Foods, opening the first production facility in their hometown of Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada. Under Wallace and Harrison’s leadership, McCain Foods quickly established itself within the Canadian marketplace and then began a journey to become the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen French fries and potato specialties.
The business has grown significantly over the years, from 30 employees and global sales of CDN$150,000, to now employing more than 20,000 people with global sales in excess of CDN$9 billion.
We operate across six continents with 53 sites, working with farmers around the world and use over 6.5 million tonnes of potatoes every year.
McCain products can be found in thousands of restaurants and supermarket freezers in more than 160 countries – one in every three French fries in the world is a McCain fry. In addition to fries, McCain also produces other foods, including snacks, meals and vegetables for both the retail and foodservice industries.
As young, determined brothers, Harrison, Wallace, Robert, and Andrew McCain were taught to work hard and foster their knowledge by pushing for improvement in themselves any way they could. As young boys, they were unsure what they would grow up to become, but they had been taught to strive for greatness by an incredible set of parents who truly led by example.
When they were just small children, their father, Andrew (also known as A.D.), taught them to work hard in the potato fields that sustained their family’s livelihood. In the early 1900’s, A.D. was determined to grow the family business and expand into a whole new market. He chose to pursue potato and seed exporting and never turned back.
As a third generation farmer, he was taught the value of hard work and respect, values which would benefit him not only for the remainder of his career but also for the entirety of his children’s careers as they continued to cherish and grow a family business.
In 1953, A.D McCain passed away and left a business to be run by his wife Laura and six children. For the next three years, the family business would operate under the order of his wife and two oldest children. Much like their father, Harrison and Wallace desired to achieve more and expand their knowledge in new markets and businesses. They had decided early on that they wanted to become business partners during their lives. They searched out many opportunities that they considered pursuing, but it wasn’t until their elder brother, Bob, suggested an idea that would create a spark which would later lead to the foundation of a multi-billion dollar company known today as McCain Foods. The company is the result of a legacy built upon the hard work and ethics the McCain brothers were taught as children.
Four years after their father’s passing and after many hours of thought and study, McCain Foods became a frozen food producer. At the time of its inception, the frozen foods sector was a new and emerging idea inside the food industry that clearly had a great amount of opportunity lurking in its midst. Because they had been raised by generations of potato farmers, it seemed only appropriate that they should incorporate frozen foods into their new business. For many years now, McCain Foods has purchased potatoes (mostly in the US and Canada), has processed them into french fries, and has frozen them to be shipped to people across the world.
In 1960 the Burley plant roared to life providing business to local commerce, contracts for local farmers, and jobs to 300 people. The Burley plant was originally an Ore-Ida plant constructed by Griggs and Anderson. Five years later, Heinz purchased Ore-Ida, which included the Burley plant. In 1997, McCain Foods bought the Ore-Ida food service business from Heinz, and the Burley plant became part of the global McCain Foods family.
Today McCain Foods Burley is a world-class organization with a world-class facility. However, it is the 550 employees that work at the Burley facility that truly make McCain Foods Burley a successful business. The Burley employees contributed to the facility mission statement, which is:
With integrity, pride, and teamwork, we safely support the future of our families, our company, and our consumers throughout the world.
But McCain Foods Burley’s story does not end there because, in May of 2017, McCain Foods announced a $200 million dollar expansion at the Burley facility. This expansion will be a brand new facility with state of the art equipment and will create up to 180 new jobs at the Burley facility. With this expansion, McCain Foods Burley is sure to continue to provide great jobs, local contracts for farmers and business, and continue to be an active community partner.
Take some time to learn more about what McCain Foods has to offer to new employees as they expand their operations in Burley, and explore further to see what makes Burley and the Mini-Cassia area totally unique.
