Harrison McCain: The Potato Farmer who Went Big

0:00One in three frozen french fries sold anywhere in the world comes from the same company, and it all traces back to a small town with a population of about 1600.

0:10There's a sign when you drive into Florenceville.

0:12It reads Florenceville, French fry capital of the world.

0:16You might think it's a joke, something the local Chamber of Commerce put up to attract tourists, but that means you don't know the real story.

0:23Florenceville is the founding place of McCain Foods.

0:26They sell in over 160 countries.

0:28They employ more than 20,000 people and they process more than 1 million pounds of potato products every single hour.

0:36And they do over 16 billion a year in revenue.

0:39And it started with two brothers from a farming family.

0:42They had no technical expertise and a tiny budget.

0:44Harrison McCain, the central figure in our story, didn't invent frozen fries.

0:49He was a salesman from the Styx who understood a few things about the world a little earlier and a little more clearly than the people around him.

0:56But he had the appetite to pursue it in the biggest way possible.