From a Potato Farm in Florenceville to the French Fry Capital of the World
Photo: McCain Foods corporate / Wallace McCain Tribute — wallacemccaintribute.ca
Born in 1930 in Florenceville, New Brunswick
Died in 2011 in Toronto, Ontario
The McCains were potato people. Three generations of them, farming the Saint John River Valley in New Brunswick, selling seed potatoes as far as Cuba and Latin America. Andrew Davis McCain — known as A.D. — ran the operation from Florenceville, a small village on the river that had been called Buttermilk Creek before it was renamed in 1855 to honour Florence Nightingale.
A.D. and his wife Laura raised six children in the farmhouse. The youngest, Wallace, was born on April 9, 1930. He and his next oldest brother Harrison shared a bedroom and, by all accounts, outsized dreams of doing something big.
As a young man, Wallace was more hell-raiser than businessman. He got expelled from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, for carousing. “It was a Baptist school and I was in trouble all the time,” he later recalled. A similar fate followed at the University of New Brunswick. He finally settled down at Mount Allison University, graduating with a degree in 1951.
He and Harrison both went to work for K.C. Irving, the forestry and energy titan based in Saint John. They learned business, but grew restless. The two youngest McCains wanted to build something of their own.
It was their older brother Robert who had the idea: frozen French fries. The technology was new. Families were buying freezers. Convenience food was the future. And the McCains were sitting on a valley full of potatoes.
In 1957, the four brothers — Harrison, Wallace, Robert, and Andrew — pooled their savings and built a small processing plant in a cow pasture in Florenceville. Thirty employees. First-year sales of $150,000.
Wallace and Harrison ran the company as co-CEOs. Robert and Andrew served on the board. By the early 1960s, McCain Foods had cornered the Canadian frozen French fry market. Their first international plant opened in Scarborough, England, in 1968. Then the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, France — country after country, decade after decade.
CBC. My First Million: Wallace McCain
They did it all from tiny Florenceville. Corporate planes flew in and out from a small airstrip behind their adjacent homes overlooking the Saint John River Valley. The global headquarters of the world’s largest frozen French fry company was — and still is — in a New Brunswick village of fewer than 1,600 people.
One in every four French fries consumed anywhere on the planet is a McCain fry. The company today operates 49 production facilities on six continents with over 20,000 employees and annual revenue exceeding $14 billion.
The brothers’ partnership, one of the most successful in Canadian business history, came apart painfully in the 1990s over the question of succession. Wallace wanted his son Michael to lead the company. Harrison disagreed. The dispute went public, went to court, and ended with Wallace leaving Florenceville for Toronto, where he took over Maple Leaf Foods and turned it into another Canadian success story.
Harrison died in 2004. Wallace followed on May 13, 2011, at the age of 81.
Wallace McCain was named a Companion of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of New Brunswick. He received the Horatio Alger Award and was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. At the time of his death, Forbes estimated his net worth at $US 3.55 billion, making him the 13th wealthiest Canadian.
His wife Margaret — known as Billie — served as Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick from 1994 to 1997. His son Michael became CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, one of Canada’s largest food processing companies.
But the story that matters most to Florenceville is simpler than any of that.
Four brothers from a potato farm. A cow pasture. A freezer. And a bet that a small town in the Saint John River Valley could feed the world.
It did.
National French Fry Day in Florenceville
Florenceville-Bristol is a town in the northwest part of New Brunswick. Canada. The town is located on the banks of the Saint John River in Carleton County. It’s named French Fries Capital of the World.
Population: ~1,600 | Region: Upper Saint John River Valley | Province: New Brunswick
Visit the Florenceville-Bristol town page →
Florenceville was originally known as Buttermilk Creek. In 1855 it was renamed Florenceville to honour Florence Nightingale, the famous Crimean War nurse.
