International potato product producer McCain Foods has agreed to purchase Penobscot McCrum, the specialty potato product producer that operates a more than 115,000-square-foot processing plant in Washburn, McCain announced Wednesday.
All of the roughly 130 employees of the processing plant will join McCain, the company said.
The McCrum family farming operation, which spans six generations in Aroostook County, will remain independently owned and will enter a “long-term” potato supply agreement with McCain.
The acquisition is set to expand McCain’s North American footprint and consolidate the operations of two of The County’s largest potato processing facilities. The closing of the transaction is still pending the “satisfaction of customary closing conditions,” the release said.
McCain, which launched in Florenceville, New Brunswick, in 1957 and is headquartered in Toronto, operates one of the largest potato processing plants on the East Coast in Easton, a facility it has previously said employs more than 500 people.
Howard Snape, McCain’s North American regional president, said there’s a lot of synergy between the two-family owned companies.
“We share a strong commitment to integrity, sustainability, and the highest-quality standards,” Snape said in the release. “Both companies enjoy strong relationships with local farmers, and all of that will continue. On the ground, we expect this transition to be seamless for the newest additions to the McCain team and the McCrum farmers who grow potatoes for us.”
The move comes a little more than five years after Penobscot McCrum opened the Washburn facility, which was built at the site of a long-closed potato factory on Parsons Road in 2020.
The company was formed in 2004 when the McCrum family purchased the assets of Penobscot Frozen Foods and began operating a processing plant in Belfast that burnt down in 2022. That fire led Penobscot McCrum to expand its manufacturing in Washburn, where its facility is now assessed at more than $32 million, according to the most recent town tax assessment.
“This is a natural next step for the long-standing partnership between our farming operations and McCain Foods,” Penobscot McCrum Owner and CEO Jay McCrum said in a statement. “We know McCain. We know their values. We have every confidence they will build on our family’s legacy while allowing us to continue to grow in agriculture, just as we have for more than five generations.”
McCain and Penobscot McCrum did not immediately provide additional information.
