From the Ground Up - McCain Foods Limited

ToP lEFT: Barb Corey of the
McCain Canada marketing
group and Peter Reijula at a
McCain-sponsored oneweek
course at the Culinary
Institute of America in Hyde
Park, New York, 2006.
ToP rIGhT: McCain means
much more than just french
fries.
boTTom: Tony van Leersum,
corporate vice-president of
agriculture in 2002.
For a food company, sustainable development begins with sustainable agriculture.
McCain Foods, along with Unilever, Nestlé, Danone, Coca-Cola, Kraft, McDonald’s,
and others, is a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform. Members
of the platform commit themselves to promoting sustainable agriculture in their
supply chain.
Some nations, including Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Canada, and the
United States, have programs that comply with sustainable agriculture guidelines, and
these are reflected in McCain’s contracts with growers. Integrated pest management
and integrated crop management programs aim to reduce the use of agrochemicals,
improve soil, and reduce disease pressures through crop rotation. In these farming
systems, principles such as sustainability and food safety take precedence over maximizing
yield. With the help of McCain agronomists, farmers make these principles
an integral part of their growing practices and decision making.
Climate change may also challenge McCain’s growers as the twenty-first century
unfolds. In several regions, changes in weather patterns may require changes in agricultural
practices to reduce the risks of crop failure and to maintain potato quality.
The increasing importance of biofuels is likely to trigger more competition for
land and water among crops for food, animal feed, fibre, and fuel. As growers alter
their crop rotations to maximize profits, commodities such as potatoes may become
scarcer in some regions and consequently more expensive. If this occurs, the food
industry would likely pass on the higher costs to consumers.
Says Tony van Leersum: “McCain has a very extensive agricultural program, second
to none in our industry. It includes new variety development and research to
understand the most water-efficient irrigation systems. Also, we already operate in
different climates. I expect that our near global experience and collective knowledge
will give us a competitive edge in regions where climate change will become evident.”
In the face of such uncertainty, McCain’s international scale is an advantage. For
example, restaurant chains and grocery store owners in Australia know that if the
Australian crop is inadequate because of drought, McCain will be able to ship in
product from elsewhere in its global network, which has happened more than once.
Yet another part of the sustainability agenda is energy efficiency. Making french
fries is an energy-intensive process that first uses heat to remove water from the potatoes
and then refrigeration to freeze them. The company spends a lot of money each
year on energy. According to Lloyd Borowski, global vice-president of engineering
and manufacturing, McCain improved its energy efficiency by 16 percent in the three
years between 2004 and 2006 and intends to continue improving it. McCain uses
methods ranging from the mundane, such as being more vigilant about turning off
lights, to taking such initiatives as adopting alternate energy sources. In Whittlesey,
England, three windmills will provide 80 percent of McCain’s energy needs when
installation is complete by the end of 2007. For many years, McCain has used biogas
recouped from wastewater treatment as an energy source.
Des Doucette, senior director of engineering for McCain USA, aims to reduce energy
costs by 30 percent through conservation and improved efficiency. This makes
both environmental and economic sense. Part of the savings will come from better
equipment and making sure equipment is turned off when not in use. And part of
it comes from catching up to what the Europeans, who have had to cope with high
energy costs for many years, are already doing.
“When you fry french fries, you are evaporating water,” explains Doucette. “A lot
of energy goes up the smoke stack. Europeans have had energy reclaim systems on
the smoke stacks for many years. We are going to implement those systems in all our
factories in the United States and Canada.” In this case, McCain’s American operation
is learning from its European counterpart. It’s an example, according to Morrison, of
a necessary shift in how the company operates. Under the management of Harrison
and Wallace, the company was highly decentralized. The head of each regional company
focused solely on success in that region, “drinking the local wine,” while at the
same time working closely with Wallace or Harrison.
“Our biggest competitive advantage today is our global scale,” asserts Morrison.
“While we need to continue to drink the local wine, we must at the same time take
advantage of the power that comes from our global footprint. We have to be better at
taking a big productivity or product idea from Australia and moving that idea to the
230 f rom T he ground uP
a world of change 231
ToP: Lloyd Borowski, global
vice-president of engineering
and manufacturing.
boTTom: Bruce Phillips, vicepresident
of global quality
systems.