As the Ballarat plant cooks up their first batch of golden fries bursting with pure goodness, the original Daylesford plant gets a makeover and begins to manufacture the famous McCAIN Frozen Pizzas. The popularity of pizza sees McCAIN expand to a neighbouring plant in Ballarat, where all pizza production will now be based.
No longer just about French fries, McCAIN change their name from McCAIN Australia Pty Ltd, to the all-inclusive McCAIN Foods Aust Pty Ltd. By 1984, McCAIN was dominating the frozen food market, having now purchased the Copper Kettle Vegetable Processing Plant in Smithton, Tasmania. Australia now loved McCAIN, not just their fries, but also their pizzas, potatoes and farm-fresh vegetables plucked straight from the goodness of the earth. But there was more to come. In the same year, McCAIN Dinner Classics burst onto the market, with a range of low calorie, fresh dinners for the whole family to enjoy.
McCAIN gradually begins to welcome its competition, including Chalet Foods, Gold Crest and Milani dinner products, into the McCAIN family. McCAIN is now able to offer a substantial variety of frozen dinners, including its low calorie, Heart Foundation approved, HEALTHY CHOICE range. In 1988, another potato processing plant was built in Smithton, Tasmania, with its cool and clean climate producing the best potatoes yet. In 1990, New Zealand’s Alpine Food Co – a vegetable processing company – was purchased by McCAIN, and two years later so was the Safries potato processing plant of South Australia.