Sometimes a small company is nimble enough to keep innovating in a way large companies can't duplicate. From its humble beginnings in 1950 as a small, one-man operation, to its current size-approximately 160 employees, both in the United States and abroad-McCann's Engineering & Mfg. Company has built its reputation by providing outstanding quality at competitive prices. Because of a firm commitment to the quality of our products and the needs of our customers, we are able to offer superior products at competitive costs.

Wartime Beginnings

During the Korean War, McCann's began its operations by developing and later retrofitting ice cream and soft drink vending machines. The first of these machines were located at Camp Pendleton Marine Training Base in Oceanside, California. Similar machines were installed during this era at March Air Force Base, also in southern California. Shortly thereafter, McCann's began to develop carbonated soft drink fountain equipment, beginning with our carbonated beverage dispensing faucets.

Most of the components and fittings used in today's soft drink dispensers were either designed or invented by McCann's. From the beginning, McCann's has been an industry leader in the design and manufacture of such diverse products as coin-operated vending machines and carbonation-making equipment. Some of our accomplishments over the years:

Through exceptional performance and reliability, the McCann's family of carbonators have become the beverage industry standard. McCann's carbonators feature a unique two-piece probe design that does not require shutting down the CO2 or water supply during service, reducing service time and cost.

Looking Beyond Boundaries

Over the years, we have diversified our product lines, paying close attention to innovation in specialty and niche products such as special and standard ice plates; low-cost changeover valves for pump systems; sensors for dispensing problem identification; small combination ice and beverage dispensers; and stands for drop-in bins. Currently, we sell and market carbonators, faucets, stainless steel fittings, syrup pumps, sell-out devices, timers, portion control faucets, flexible hose faucets for liquor bars, pressure switches, flow controls, solenoid valves, transformers, ice-cooled beverage dispensing systems and Iceflo sanitary ice dispensing systems.

As we grew and diversified, we have expanded our plant operations. Our main facility on Colorado Boulevard in Los Angeles, built in 1974, houses not only our headquarters, but also the welding, automatic screw machines, metal machining, plastics, metal treating and other manufacturing departments. Our second plant, housing the injection molding and mold-making operations, is only a block away, and the third, which houses our sheet metal fabrication and some subassembly production projects, is just across the border in Tijuana, Mexico.

From the beginning, alliances with other companies-nationally and internationally-have been key to our success. These relationships include our close working relationship with Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and other beverage makers.

Twenty years ago, we previewed for Coca-Cola the first portion pump operated by soda water. This pump was revolutionary, allowing the correct portion of syrup to be included for a perfectly proportioned drink.

Eight years later, we introduced the first gas-driven syrup pump to remove syrup for a bag-in-box.

Eventually, this equipment replaced most of the five gallon stainless steel containers previously used to move syrup. (Recently, we marketed the first syrup pump that not only removes syrup from the bag-in-box, but also removes any and all air that can cause foaming and faulty ratios.)

We have also created alliances with several foodservice equipment manufactures. We have built a network of 24 distributors, including 23 in the United States and the 24th in Canada.

Recently, we became the North and South American licensee of Iceflo Systems Ltd., an Irish company that first brought to market an automated ice delivery system. Once again ahead of anything else on the market, the Iceflo system transports all styles of ice cubes to as many as five different destinations up to 250 feet away from the icemaker-solving the labor and sanitation problems associated with carrying ice from where it's being made to where it's being used.

Lessons Learned

Many individuals with entrepreneurial leanings and engineering skills are called to start manufacturing companies-and many of these companies quickly fail or are absorbed by larger concerns. Why has the plot line been so different for McCann's Engineering?

We started small and diversified slowly and only tangentially, remaining close to the foodservice beverage market and the partners and customers we already knew. Our strong vertical integration has enabled us to utilize mostly raw materials (such as stainless steel, copper and plastics, along with other basic goods) to build and bring to customers the finest quality drink dispensing products.

We have prided ourselves on our independence, but we have also built vital relationships with other companies and in other countries.

We have not only listened to our customers-we have anticipated their needs. For example, when we saw a need for those bottlers that were exclusively using pre-mix equipment to convert their operations to post mix, we developed the first pre-mix converter, allowing the bottler using fountain or coin operated vending machines to make this simple conversion without being forced to discontinue use of the old pre-mix equipment.

Will these lessons stand us in good stead as we look forward to the next 51 years? Only if we keep looking ahead and continue working on new products and new innovations that help our customer stay ahead of their changing marketplace. As Satchel Paige famously said: "Don't look back-someone may be gaining on you!"