Shane Parrish

The British pound had been devalued massively.

In an instant, every shipment from Canada became far more expensive for British buyers.

The business Harrison had spent years building now was suddenly uncompetitive.

He happened to be in England when the news broke.

His response was immediate.

We'll build a plant here, otherwise you'd have to give up the business.

because you'd be non-competitive.

To hell with that, we're building a plant.

The plant opened in 1969 and became the largest frozen French fry plant outside of North America.

But what mattered more than the plant itself was the principle it revealed.

A crisis had forced a commitment that turned out to be the best decision they could have made.

With a British plant, they no longer depended on transatlantic shipping.

They could serve the whole of Europe from a local base.

Harrison later explained the playbook in his own words.

We always established a beachhead in a foreign country by shipping product in from an existing operation.

Even if it doesn't make any money, we're going to establish that beachhead and build volume until we have sufficient load to justify a factory.

The logic was elegant because every step funded the next and limited downside.

Export first, which was low cost and low commitment.

Hire local salespeople.

If the market proved out, then, and only then, build or buy a plant.