According to research, only 12 percent of family-owned
businesses are still operating and viable by the third generation.
With two fourth-generation progeny at the executive level,
Independent Can Company, a family owned business since 1929,
has already beaten the odds.
“We operate the company from a core set of values we developed
with our employees,” explains company President and CEO,
Rick Huether. “Fair, Flexible, Market, Customer and Improvement
Driven, Dedicated, Responsible, and committed to Teamwork. We
hire, fire, retire and promote using those values to guide us. It’s
what’s allowed us to not only survive but also thrive over the years.
We work hard, but we’re committed to having fun while we do it.
We all agree that if that ever changed, it would be time to do something else.”
While he has no day-to-day responsibilities, second-generation
owner, Doug Huether, must still be having fun. The 86-year-old
chairman of the board reports to work every day, making his
way through the 370,000-square-foot company headquarters in
Belcamp, transporting the mail, greeting employees and asking
questions that he expects to be answered. He still maintains an
offi ce and regularly challenges staff members regarding customer
care and product movement. “He overheard me once explaining
the difference between two cans to a customer and was concerned
they would be jeopardizing their product if I was switching them
to a lower grade can,” remembers Donna Sichette, company
marketing specialist. “I explained to him that I was reaffi rming
their decision to stay with the better can for quality. He’s very in
tune to everything we do here.”
A popular adage about family businesses states that the fi rst
generation starts it, the second generation builds it, and the third
generation kills it. A third-generation member of the business, Rick
Huether defi es that notion. “One of the fi rst things my dad had to
get used to was me wanting to obsolete things,” Huether admits.
“When I started working here and tried to change something, he
would argue that the company already made an investment and
we should run like before. I had to show him that our customers’
desires were changing and that if we didn’t give them what they
were looking for, someone else would.”
“Rick has a gift for knowing what we should be involved in,” says
sister and fellow board member, Cathy McClelland, who works in
sales. “He’ll have us invest in tooling for a new product before any
of our customers actually ask for it. That way he knows we can be
ready to deliver when the time comes.”
Huether joined his father’s company in 1975 after a call from
then-sales manager Bob Link, a.k.a. “Uncle Bob,” asking if he was
interested in a sales position that was opening up. “There was never
a plan to just follow in the family business,” he declares. “I worked
here every summer and holiday since I was 14. I never worked
in the offi ce. I was usually the dirty one under the equipment or
packing stuff that came off the equipment. I always enjoyed it. I
also enjoyed working with Uncle Bob. I was in graduate school
and needed a job, so I interviewed.”
Cathy McClelland moved from New Jersey when her husband,
Mac McClelland, was hired by Independent Can – a job she
didn’t even know he had applied for. “I was planning on redoing
my kitchen in New Jersey when Mac announced, ‘We’re moving
to Baltimore,’” she adds. She later joined the company when her
brother asked her if she would run an outlet store he was planning
to open in the front of their new location in Harford County. “I
said yes only if I could leave whenever my kids had something at
school or needed me. Of course, part-time eventually turned into
full-time and the outlet store was eventually relocated several times
then closed because we needed the space for more productive
ventures. Currently I work in inside sales, but I’m planning to join
my husband in retirement very soon.”
The Fourth Generation
Joining Huether and McClelland at the executive table are sons
Bob McClelland, executive vice president, and Ryan Huether, the
newly minted vice president of business development. Both sons
worked at the company during summer breaks and holidays, but
like their parents, never assumed a role would be offered or waiting
for them in the family business.
“I interned in the engineering department for two summers,”
remembers Bob McClelland, who graduated from Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University. “I was actually studying
structural engineering but changed to industrial engineering after
interning and really liked it. I was part of ushering in the CADD
systems during that time. When I graduated, someone called and
said they liked what I was doing while I was here and would I be
interested in interviewing for an unexpected opening. I said yes.”
The family members agree that a job within the family business
is not an entitlement. “My sister even asked me once why had I
never asked her to join Independent Can,” says McClelland. “It was
never in my thoughts. We don’t ask people to participate. We treat
it as a professional business – not a family business.” In fact, when
the company responded to the economic recession by evaluating
their employee base and eliminating positions, Rick’s daughter
didn’t make the cut. Moreover, when both his son and his nephew
looked to him for advice about joining the company, he did his
best to discourage them. “Family members have to work twice as
hard to gain employee respect. If you don’t have the respect from
the people on the fl oor, you can’t get anything done,” Huether
emphasizes. He also demanded a two-year commitment from both
Bob and Ryan telling them, “You’re not worth anything to us until
you’ve learned everything, and it will take at least that long.”
McClelland joined the company in 1995 and learned his way
around the company working in several departments, the machine
shop, facilities management of their Ohio plant, and eventually
running the engineering department. When his father retired,
in addition to heading up engineering, the younger McClelland
assumed management of administration, which included IT and
fi nance. “It would be hard if I didn’t have really good people to
support me,” he admits.
His younger cousin Ryan started running errands and helping
at the outlet store when he was nine. His summer job experiences
changed as he got older, packing popcorn cans at 14 and working
on equipment when he was 16. While attending college in Florida,
Ryan interned at the company’s distribution plant in California. He
was planning to attend graduate school when the California plant
manager called needing someone in sales. Although his father gave
him the same “unsell” advice, the appeal of California won him
over and Ryan headed west to become a sales representative in
2003. Ryan moved quickly from inside sales to outside sales, which
grew into roles in logistics and overseas sales support. He became
the distributions and sales manager and managed the California
plant from his Belcamp offi ce. He was recently promoted to vice
president of business development, a responsibility his father has
had for the last 25 years.
The family may discourage other family members from joining
the ranks, but the company’s employees feel a different way. “We’ve
had third-generation families working alongside us,” claims Cathy
McClelland. “They’ve watched us grow up.” Marketing specialist
Sichette adds, “More than 20 percent of our 259 employees have
a relative who is currently or was previously employed by the
company. That doesn’t include seven married couples on staff.”
From Lard to Litho
Independent Can Company was founded on South Howard and
Ostend Streets in Baltimore City during the early years of the
depression, making and selling cans that were used to hold lard
from the city’s slaughterhouses and package fresh food for the
growing seafood industries. These simple products were the focus
and sustaining force of the company for more than 40 years.
As technology and computers started to impact the world in the
’80s and ’90s, Independent Can kept pace adding 3-D modeling,
robotic packaging and metal plate lithography. The addition of
the latter allowed ICC to enter the market of decorative tins –
internationally known as “fancy cans” – as well as nostalgic signs,
specialty closures and high-end packaging. The company has
made huge capital investments in equipment and machinery that
gives its customers like Disney, Target, Nestlé and Elizabeth Arden
options like embossing, textured surfaces, specialty varnishes and
photographic quality.
Becoming their own printer in 1991, ICC secured a way to not
only guarantee quality control of their product from start to fi nish,
but also enabled them to provide a faster response to customer
request.
“We are very customer driven,” says Rick Huether. “Our
customers change what we do every day. We schedule manually
so that we can make the arrangements to get our customers their
products when they want them, not when we can do them.”
This fl exibility can be credited to sustaining the company as the
country continues to weather a diffi cult economic recovery. Huether
explains, “We were on schedule to have a record year in 2008, when
the door slammed shut. Our sales went down 25 percent over the
next 14 months. We took the opportunity to not only make sure
all our employees were on board with our philosophy, but that our
manufacturing would be ready when the business returned. We
spent the most money in the company’s history during that time
on new equipment and upgrades. A lot of it we did because we
were able to purchase $7 million of equipment at recession bargain
prices – probably 25 to 30 percent below normal pricing. We also
hired and trained a lot of people so that they could concentrate on
new projects and be ready to lead. 2011 was a record year and 2012
should outpace that record.”
That investment has paid off. “We’re booming and we need space
for new opportunities and new growth. We have to look for ways to
make room for new items to our line,” says Bob McClelland. “And,”
adds Huether, “we are always looking for talented machinists,
mechanics and lithographers. These are highly-skilled, high paying
jobs that don’t always require a college degree.” While pundits
talk about foreign competition and sending jobs overseas, Independent
Can sees a different problem – or opportunity. “We’re less threatened
by overseas markets then we were 10 years ago. We’re more flexible
and better at the technology. We may go over there to learn,
but we’ll bring it back and do it better,” he adds. “China is going through their
Industrial Revolution now,” states Ryan Huether. “The United States did it over
100 years while China is doing it in 20. But the second generation over there is killing
it. The Chinese wages are going up, so the price differential is lessening. Workers are
getting savvy about demanding higher wages and threatening to walk out of a
factory during critical production times. Companies here are worried that a factory
delay or container hold in China could keep products from reaching their stores,
so they are coming back to us. They consider that 10 percent price differential
insurance for quality control and delivery assurance.”
Rick Huether continues, “We’ve reshored several million dollars in product
because we’re more fl exible. Because of the recession, retailers are pushing their
commitment and buy dates to keep inventories low. This forces suppliers to
reconsider overseas manufacturing and packaging because they may only have six
weeks to fi ll an order.” Although the company is growing, growth is not a company goal. Huether
points out, “Our mission statement is ‘To be the best not the biggest.’ We’re
committed to strategic planning, but we work on the things that will support
growth. We don’t aim for a number. It goes back to our values card [referencing a
wallet-size card employees carry with the company mission, vision and values]. If
we’re doing the things on that card, then growth will be a successful by-product.”
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