In her claim, McCain said the family company wants to purchase her share at a reduced value that is hundreds of millions of dollars below their own estimates.Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press
An heir to the McCain French fry fortune is asking the courts to ensure she gets fair value for a $1-billion-plus stake in one of Canada’s largest private companies after failing to sell her holding to an outside investor.
Eleanor McCain, the 55-year-old owner of an 8.7-per-cent position in family holding company McCain Foods Group Inc. (MFGI), filed a claim in the New Brunswick Court of King’s Bench this week that details a year-long fight over how much she should receive from the sale of her inheritance.
Ms. McCain and her relatives are at odds over a food giant that ranks as one of Canada’s few global champions. Based on the value of publicly traded peers, the private company is worth roughly $20-billion.
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As part of Ms. McCain’s attempt to get paid what she believes she is owed, the filing details the holding company’s strategies to minimize taxes paid by wealthy members of the McCain clan.
Founded in the farm town of Florenceville, N.B., McCain Foods is the world’s largest producer of frozen potatoes and a significant contributor to New Brunswick’s economy, with more than 20,000 employees in 160 countries and $16-billion in annual sales.
McCain Foods, the operating business, is owned by the holding company, MFGI. Ms. McCain, a professional musician, has been trying to cash out of MFGI since April, 2025. She plans use her inheritance to back charities and her own business ventures.
In her claim, Ms. McCain said her family company “is only prepared to purchase Eleanor’s shares at a discounted price that is hundreds of millions of dollars below MFGI’s own internal estimates.”
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Brothers Wallace and Harrison McCain, sons of a potato farmer, opened their first frozen fry factory in 1957. They built a global business, then feuded over leadership in the early 1990s, prior to their deaths in 2011 and 2004, respectively.
Since 1995, McCain Foods has hired outside executives to run the company. The company recruited current chief executive officer Max Koeune from French food giant Danone SA. He has more than doubled sales since taking the top job in 2017.
Control of MFGI is now shifting to 55 second- and third-generation McCain heirs. The filing alleges Wallace and Harrison McCain structured the holding company to allow their offspring to sell their holdings to outsiders.
The filing also states that in 1995, as part of a court hearing to resolve the feud between the founders, New Brunswick Justice Ronald Stevenson said McCain Foods “should seriously consider a public equity issue” to avoid potential family disputes.
In April, 2025, Ms. McCain told MFGI she wanted to sell her stake to an outside buyer, who the filing identifies as “a sophisticated investor in family businesses.”
In May, Ms. McCain said an MFGI director told her “if she sold shares to a third party, her immediate family would be alienated from the McCain clan.”
In the months that followed, the filing said: “MFGI made it clear that the prospective purchaser would be entering into a hostile shareholder environment in order to chill the prospective purchaser’s interest.”
The unnamed outside investor eventually decided not to purchase Ms. McCain’s stake.
Last October, at a meeting in Lille, France, Mr. Koeune told the family that McCain Foods was in a strong financial position. The filing says the CEO’s presentation showed “MFGI has more than sufficient resources to acquire the share of any shareholder wishing to exit.”
In November, MFGI offered to purchase Ms. McCain’s shares at a “significant discount” to their value, the filing alleges, with half the money paid on closing and the remainder paid out over three years, without interest.
Ms. McCain rejected the offer. She is now asking the New Brunswick court to order MFGI to buy all of her shares at “fair market value without discount” and in a tax-efficient manner.
Ms. McCain and her advisers declined to comment on the filing.
MFGI said in a statement: “The claims made in the lawsuit are without merit, and McCain Foods Group Inc. will respond comprehensively in due course through the appropriate legal channels.”
“In the meantime, we remain committed to a fair commercial process that balances the interests of all stakeholders and the long-term interests of the company,” the MFGI statement said. “Our hope is that this matter can be resolved constructively.”
In 2010, Michael McCain, the executive chair of Maple Leaf Foods Inc. and Wallace McCain’s son, sold his family’s holding in MFGI as part of his father’s estate planning. In the lawsuit, Ms. McCain claims her brother had to sell “at a significant discount.”
Mr. McCain declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The McCain family has struggled with the value of stakes in MFGI for 30 years, according to one source close to the family, who said the same sort of disputes take place during succession at many family businesses.
Ms. McCain’s filing shows the holding company and its advisers have set up numerous strategies to minimize capital gains and estate taxes for the extended family.
As part of MFGI’s services, it set up a “tax planning committee” that circulates a survey to family members, according to the lawsuit. The McCain heirs are asked if they own works of art, jewellery, rare books, stamps and yachts. The value of each person’s net assets is totalled and used to calculate the amount available to meet estate tax obligations.
The court filing said MFGI “expects that family members will sell their art, jewelry and other personal belongings to cover their tax liabilities,” and that all shares in MFGI will be passed on to other relatives.