McCain Foods Limited began producing frozen French fries in a small Florenceville, N.B., factory in January 1957. The company's 30 employees produced about 1,500 lbs. of product an hour and earned sales of $152,678 the first year.

Today, still privately held by the McCain families, the McCain Group of companies employs more than 16,000 full time people worldwide, with a manufacturing capacity of about 1,000,000 lbs. of potato products per hour. Globally, McCain Foods has potato and other food processing facilities in Canada, United States, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Columbia, Argentina and Poland. The McCain Group has expanded to include companies engaged in transportation, equipment manufacturing and other areas.

McCain products now embrace not only a complete line of French fries and potato specialties, but also green vegetables, desserts, pizzas, juices and beverages, oven meals, entrées and other quality food products.