Personal relationships are McCall Farms' secret to success

FLORENCE -- From small beginnings in 1838, James McCall’s farm has developed from growing cotton into becoming one of the largest producers of canned and frozen Southern fruits and vegetables in the Southeast.

The transition took many years and several generations. The farm switched from growing cotton to growing tobacco, and then over to vegetables in the 1950s.

“South Carolina, just by the nature of the soil and the climates that we have, vegetables grow in good tobacco-growing soil and weather conditions ... so it was a natural shift from tobacco to vegetables,” said Henry Swink, who co-owns the company with his brother, Marion.

Still family-owned
Now in its sixth generation as a family farm, McCall Farms added its first 5,000-square-foot cannery in 1954. In the 1970s, the Swink brothers took over operations, expanding the company to other Southern states by adding new canneries and product labels.

As a family-run business, the Swinks said they work hard to develop personal relationships with the community and their employees.

Debbie Hosford, who has been the freezer shipping and inventory manager at McCall Farms for a year, said she can attest to this.

“If everyone knew what a good family the Swinks are and how they take the time to share that good family atmosphere with their employees, more people would be lining up to be hired at McCall Farms,” Hosford said.

“McCall Farms is experiencing some very exciting times right now such as business growth and facility expansion,” she said. “Management is providing much appreciated training ... and support needed to ensure all employees are prepared for this growth. I personally have never experienced such respect and support from owners and management with any other company.”

As the company continues to grow, the family maintains the farming operation, canning and distributing more than 40 Southern fruit and vegetable products under the Margaret Holmes brand.

Working locally
Some of the fruits and vegetables processed by the company are still grown on the 2,000-acre family farm in Effingham and on another 5,000 acres in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. The company purchases 60 to 70 percent of its products, including peaches, peanuts, collard greens and cabbages, from local growers.

Supporting local farmers also helps support the local economy by keeping the farmers growing, supplying jobs and keeping money in the community, Swink said.

“We work with great farmers in South Carolina,” he said. “We work very closely with the growers to make sure that they are growing what we want and what we need.”

Fresher is better
In developing these close relationships, Swink said, the company is able to provide a fresher, and healthier product for its customers.

“We work with the farmer from the time he selects the field that he’s planting, when he plants it, to when it’s harvested,” he said.

Offering high-quality products, such as the spinach processed Thursday at the plant, is of critical importance to the company, Swink said.

“When you can harvest a product in the morning and package it that afternoon, it makes for a brighter, better, fresher-looking product,” he said.

As soon as a vegetable like Thursday’s spinach is harvested and loaded on trucks at the farm, it makes its way to the processing plant where the canning or freezing production begins and ends in just a few hours. Once the produce arrives at the plant, it is unloaded, then goes through several quality control steps, such as sorting and cleaning.

After the sorting and cleaning, Thursday’s spinach was washed, sorted again, steamed, and hand picked again.

From the steamer, it went to a flash freezing system to lock in freshness and nutrients before being shipped to companies like Campbell’s, Nestle and Walmart for use in soups, frozen dinners or to be sold as frozen bagged spinach.

Growing strong
With such strong roots in the community, the company is operating from a 100,000 square-foot facility in the same site where the original cannery was first built in 1954. Unlike many businesses, the recent economic recession has had a positive effect on McCall Farms. Just last week, the company announced the construction on a new 150,000 square-foot warehouse, which will bring 65 jobs to the community within a year.

“As strange as it may seem, the economy has not quite affected us they way it has in other area’s of the business,” Swink said. “More people are eating at home than they used to, so consequently they are going to the grocery store and buying products they can cook at home. Our product is just heat and eat, and that part of the grocery industry has really improved.”

It’s that kind of improvement in the marketplace that also offers McCall Farms the opportunity to add new product lines such as the Garcia Brand, a line of Hispanic products the company recently introduced.

Consumers’ health is another reason McCall Farms had to add the new facility, Swink said.

“Consumers read labels today much more than they did two years ago,” he said. “Not only do (we) provide an extremely tasty product but an extremely healthy one, as well.

“So all these things that we are doing has added to the reason we are needing to have the plant expansion, and needing the 65 jobs we are in the process of creating.”

The 65 new jobs will include positions in several different areas including manufacturing, office and warehouse staff. The McCall Farms plans to begin hiring for those positions sometime next year.

“The community supports us, not just from the employees we have but they (the entire community) support us, and we are real thankful for it,” Swink said. “We couldn’t do it with out them, no way,” he said.