History

Elbert Day and Walter Ross founded Day & Ross in 1950 in Hartland, New Brunswick with one truck to haul potatoes between their home province of New Brunswick and its adjoining province Quebec. At a time when the railroads dominated the transport business, this was a pioneer move. Joe Palmer, a colourful New Brunswick grower turned entrepreneur later bought a share of the company and became the company’s president.

Once McCain Foods started operating its founding plant in Florenceville, it didn’t take long for the company to become Day & Ross’s biggest customer. From the beginning, transporting potatoes and products was a major challenge for McCain Foods. Florenceville is far from major Canadian markets and as production levels soared during the early years, getting the goods to customers on time became increasingly difficult. It was a result of this that in 1965 McCain Foods bought majority ownership of Day & Ross.

As McCain Foods grew, so did Day & Ross, and by the end of the 1960s Day & Ross owned four hundred trucks. Since then, management has developed Day & Ross into one of Canada’s most successful trucking lines and a significant contributor to the overall success of McCain Foods.