Wallace McCain, chair of Maple Leaf Foods Inc. and co-founder of the McCain frozen food company, died at the age of 81 due to pancreatic cancer.
McCain and his brother, Harrison, started the frozen food company that bears their name in their hometown of Florenceville, New Brunswick in 1956.
Today the company is one of Canada’s most successful, producing one in every three french fries in the world.
The company expanded into other frozen and prepared foods and now has operations in 15 different countries with sales totaling about $6 billion a year.
A dispute between McCain and his brother over succession at McCain Foods erupted in 1994, with Wallace wanting to see his son be named chief executive officer.
Eventually, the feud found its way into the courts. Wallace lost and was ousted from his role as co-CEO, although he did maintain a significant ownership stake and a place on the board of directors.
The brothers managed some measure of reconciliation after their falling out. Wallace visited Harrison regularly before his death due to kidney failure in 2004.
In 1995, McCain bought Maple Leaf Foods with financial backing from the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Fund. The company has shown solid growth since, with sales rising to about $5 billion in 2010 from about $3 billion in 1995.
McCain donated time and money to diverse causes including the National Ballet School, Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation and the University of New Brunswick’s Wallace McCain Institute for Business Leadership.
He is survived by his wife Margaret, four children and nine grandchildren.
Maple Leaf Foods has yet to announce who will replace McCain as chair.
