McCain Foods to Acquire Falcon Agrifriz Frozen Potato Plant in India

McCain Foods has agreed to acquire Falcon Agrifriz Foods’ frozen potato processing business in Gujarat, India — an automated plant in Kadi with over 450 employees and ties to more than 1,000 farmers — weeks after cancelling a planned €1 billion fry factory in Germany.

McCain Foods announced on 12 October that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the frozen potato processing business of Falcon Agrifriz Foods in the Indian state of Gujarat. The transaction covers a modern, fully automated processing facility in Kadi, in the Mehsana district, which produces a range of frozen potato products for the domestic market and for export. Closing remains subject to customary conditions — this is a signed agreement, not a completed acquisition — and McCain is not disclosing the purchase price.

The plant adds capacity next to McCain’s existing operations in Mehsana, one of India’s core processing-potato regions. Falcon Agrifriz, owned by the Falcon Group, built the facility from scratch in less than two years, according to Vice Chairman Parthajeet Patnaik, and runs it with a team of more than 450 employees and commercial relationships with over 1,000 farmers across Gujarat. Its flagship retail brand “Just Crave” covers French fries and potato snacks including hash browns, patties and wedges.

“India continues to be a priority growth market for McCain Foods,” said Pierre Danet, Regional President for Asia Pacific and South Africa, pointing to nearly three decades of investment in the country. Manish Tibrewal, Director and CEO of Falcon Agrifriz, said McCain was “the right company to build on the strong foundation we have established.”

The deal extends an expansion drive that has been running all year. McCain recently completed a CAD 135 million (approximately USD 98 million) expansion of its existing Gujarat operations, which created 110 full-time and 150 contract jobs. The company has operated in India since 1998, when it started with a team of three; today it employs more than 940 people directly in the country and works with over 2,500 farmers.

Aditya Krishna, Managing Director of McCain Foods India, framed the deal in local development terms: McCain has been part of India’s food and agriculture sector for nearly thirty years, he said, and the company looks forward to welcoming Falcon employees and growers into the McCain network while continuing to create local employment and support regional industrial development. The corporate scale behind the transaction is worth noting: parent McCain Foods Limited is the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato specialities, employing approximately 18,000 people across 50 production facilities on six continents, with McCain Foods (India) as its wholly-owned subsidiary. Falcon Agrifriz, owned by the Falcon Group, specializes in frozen potato products and ethnic flatbreads.

The Indian investment stands in pointed contrast to McCain’s European posture. At the end of September the company shelved plans for a new French fry factory in Mehrum (Peine district, Lower Saxony), Germany — a project budgeted at up to €1 billion that would have employed around 650 people. McCain cited sharply risen construction costs, overcapacity in the European potato processing industry and disappointing demand in key sales markets, concluding the investment is not economically attractive under current market conditions.

Read together, the two decisions map the industry’s center of gravity shift: capital is flowing toward the demand growth in South Asia while Europe’s processing sector digests surplus capacity and weak free-market prices. India is simultaneously the world’s second-largest potato producer and one of the fastest-growing frozen potato markets, with exports into Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern corridors expanding — competitive territory where Indian-made fries increasingly compete with European exports.

Sources: Business Wire India / UNI, 12 Oct 2026; PotatoPro, 12 Oct 2026; The Tribune, 21 May 2025; Commodity Board, 30 Sep 2026