Wallace McCain

Wallace McCain, who died on May 13 aged 81, became a billionaire by selling more frozen chips than anyone else in the world, having co-founded the McCain Foods empire with his elder brother – with whom he later fell out. 

Wallace McCain Photo: REUTERS/CORBIS

 

This year, Forbes Magazine ranked McCain at No 512 on its annual list of the world's billionaires, estimating his personal net worth at $2.3 billion (£1.45 billion). Described as "a steely-eyed, hard-nosed capitalist", McCain also earned a reputation for salty language.

With his brother Harrison, Wallace McCain founded McCain Foods in Canada in 1956, building it into one of the world's largest frozen food companies. It was said that McCain fries were darker and tastier than American imports because they were cooked longer before being frozen.

It now operates in 44 countries and produces more frozen oven-ready chips than any other company in the world. By 2002 the chipping plant at McCain's British head office near Scarborough was processing an average of 1,200 tonnes of potatoes each day.

The brothers' success story began a little more than 50 years ago, when they followed in the footsteps of their father, who owned a seed potato exporting business in their home town of Florenceville, New Brunswick (pop 1,000). They hired 30 employees at their new plant and sold $152,000 worth of chips in 1957, their first year.

But as more consumers demanded the convenience of prepared foods, the company expanded over a 15-year period into Britain – where it opened its first factory in 1969 – Australia and the United States.

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, McCain gobbled up European and American businesses, moving into the frozen pizza, vegetable and fish processing markets, as well as the juice business, while increasing its number of plants around the world.
But in 1994 Wallace McCain was forced out as co-chief executive officer after a bitter public feud with his elder brother about who would take over the company. Wallace wanted his son, Michael, to take charge, but Harrison preferred outside managers. Eventually the courts sided with Harrison, who later went on to name his nephew, Allison McCain, as his successor. Harrison McCain died in 2004.
"The biggest thing that happened to me in the past 25 years –and in my life –was being dumped from McCain Foods," Wallace told a reporter in 2009. But he remained a board member and continued to hold a one-third interest.
Though forced to leave the company he had helped set up, he was unable to stay away from the industry that had made him a billionaire. In 1995 he bought Maple Leaf Foods, a Toronto-based maker of delicatessen meats, bread and other prepared foods. Under McCain's supervision the company grew to more than 21,000 employees, and is now run by his son Michael.
Both brothers were famous for lacing their business dealings with lashings of bad language. One former provincial premier, Frank McKenna, joked that if they were ever prevented from swearing, they would become functionally illiterate. McKenna said that after spending time with the McCains, he had to take time off to cleanse his own vocabulary.
George Wallace Ferguson McCain was born on April 9 1930, the youngest son of AD McCain, a potato seed exporter and founder of McCain Produce. Wallace descended from a long line of Irish potato farmers who emigrated to Canada in 1825 to seek a better life in the New World.
By all accounts, the young Wallace was something of a hell-raiser, and he was reportedly sent down from Acadia University in Nova Scotia for "carousing". "At Acadia I didn't do any work," he admitted later. "It was a Baptist school and I was in trouble all the time." Matters did not improve at the University of New Brunswick, and it was only when he settled at his third college, Mount Allison University, that he knuckled down to his studies, graduating in 1952.
Having joined Green Grass Insecticides as a salesman, McCain soon moved on to a hardware company, and rose to the rank of general manager. He and his brother then explored a number of ideas for a start-up business of their own before Robert, another older brother, suggested they consider frozen food.
Although the technology that made frozen food possible was in its infancy, both Wallace and Harrison quickly grasped the possibilities and founded McCain Foods in 1956, focusing initially on French fries.
Despite his colourful language, McCain's air of brash exuberance was tempered by a self-deprecating manner. While Harrison, with his "motor mouth and million-dollar smile", was the front man, Wallace McCain, with a quieter brand of charisma, tended to remain in the background.
The brothers set about building a global organisation from their base in the Canadian sticks, taking off on a Sunday night or a Monday morning from the tiny airstrip at Florenceville in their corporate jet and returning on a Thursday or Friday. At the height of their empire-building, Wallace McCain estimated he spent about 140 nights a year sleeping aboard the aircraft.
Wallace McCain would often work 18-hour days. But unless he was travelling, he made a point of eating breakfast and dinner with his family every day, and scheduled his work abroad to bring him home at the weekends. Both he and his wife fostered a strong family and work ethic. All four of their children lived within 10 minutes of their parents.
McCain was also renowned for his philanthropic activities, fundraising for the Canadian National Ballet School, and establishing an entrepreneur training institute in his name at the University of New Brunswick."I liked making money," he once said, "but I love giving it away even more."
In 1995 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest honours.
Wallace McCain married, in 1955, Margaret Norrie, whose father founded the Malartic Gold Mines. She and their four children survive him.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/8522014/Wallace-McCain.html