"A Quiet Kind of Company": The Inland Container Corporation of Indianapolis
- Jul 26
- 6 min read
Indianapolis’ industrial history is long, ranging from automobiles to pharmaceuticals. And boxes. Yes, boxes. Cardboard boxes to be exact. In fact, if you head east on Morris Street, on the extreme south side of the downtown area, just before you reach the White River you will pass a large industrial complex. And along the south wall of that complex, you may spot a doorway, made of brick and limestone with the name "Inland Box Corporation."
The doorway seems out of place for the modern metal exterior of the building to which it provides access, seen below from the middle of Morris Street.
This doorway is a remnant of the Inland Box Corporation. Founded in 1925 by businessman Herman Krannert, the company was dedicated to the production of a variety of cardboard boxes and other paper based containers. Krannert had originally been an executive at a box company in Anderson before moving to Indianapolis to take advantage of the favorable business climate in this city to start his own company. “Indianapolis was selected by the firm because of the excellent railroad facilities, both stream and traction; the city's skilled labor and its location at the center of a large market fir manufactured products,” reported the Indianapolis Star in April of 1927.
The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce also trumpeted the arrival of the new company, stating that "[t]he Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce is very happy to welcome the Inland Box Corporation to Indianapolis and has placed its many and varied services at the command of Mr. Krannert and his associates." The Chamber also featured the company in its August 1925 newsletter. In 1926 the company moved from temporary accommodations at 1301 West Morris (west side of the White River) to its new headquarters and production facility along the 700 block of west Morris Street shown below. The doorway above is just visible on the far right side of the image below.
Inland's business immediately took off, and in 1930, it merged with the Gardner-Harvey Container Company in Gardner, Ohio. The consolidated company’s headquarters would be in Indianapolis, while the name was changed to Inland Container Corporation, and Krannert remained the president. Business continued to expand, with facilities being opened in other parts of the country. During World War II, the company produced a range of boxes, some water resistant, which were used for a variety of military uses. The advertisements below for Inland appeared in the Indianapolis Star and News in March and May 1943. Note the "[h]elp make the boxes that carry the shells that will defeat the enemy," statement in the first ad.
By 1950, when the company was reported to be celebrating its 25th anniversary, the company was manufacturing enough corrugated cardboard each day to form a 3-foot-wide road (or perhaps walking path) to Chicago and back again. The “industrial giant” had plants in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and an additional plant in Evansville, along with its headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Indianapolis. Krannert continued to helm the company into the second half of the 20th century, which saw Inland continue to grow, becoming one of the largest box manufacturers in the country. The company went public in 1960, although it appears it was traded as an over-the-counter stock, versus being listed on one of the major stock exchanges.
Krannert stepped down from the company in 1970 and died in February of 1972. Around this time, Inland had become the second largest manufacturer of shipping containers in the country and advertised itself as the “largest manufacturer of corrugated container east of the Rockies.” Following Krannert’s passing, the company was listed on the New Stock Exchange in December of 1972 under the symbol “IN.” At the time Inland’s net sales were pushing $200 million.
Legal problems arose for the company in the late 1970s, when federal charges were levied against the company accusing it, and three other container companies, of price fixing the container box industry and submitting noncompetitive bids to potential clients. The company was fined $50,000 and one of its vice presidents, Baxter T. Stewart, pleaded no contest to the charges, in what seemed like a fall guy situation. The hurried way in which that litigation was resolved was probably because significant changes in the works for the company: their acquisition by the Time, Inc. company in 1978.
In addition to the acquisition, other changes were in the works for Inland, most notably, the closure of its plant on West Morris Street in 1981. The company’s vice president for public affairs explained to the Indianapolis Star the factors which contributed to its closure. “[T]he layout of the plant makes it inefficient. The market is changing. A lot of customers served by the plant are in the automobile business. The business has dried up.” Manufacturing facilities elsewhere in the state and country would continue operating, while the company’s corporate headquarters, which was located on the northwest side of the city, remained in Indianapolis. 132 hourly, and 30 salaried employees lost their jobs as a result of the closure.
Inland’s new position in the Time Company continued for a few years until it was spun off into a new company, Temple-Inland Inc., in 1983, combining the original Inland company with another paper manufacturer also owned by Time. Specializing in “forest products,” the headquarters for the new company would be in Texas, while the headquarters for Inland Container, now a subsidiary of Temple-Inland Inc., remained in Indianapolis.
Inland Container continued to prosper into the 1990s. In 1990 it acquired Pakway Container, a local container company which had been started by employees from Inland Container. Pakway would be operated as a subsidiary of Inland with operations near Stout Field. A new Inland plant was opened on the west side of the city in 1992. The plant was focused on the design and printing of artwork and colors on boxes, including for various major food and toy products. The advertisement below is from 1995, and shows various boxes produced by Inland, including Coors Light and Nerf packaging.
In 1993, the Indianapolis Star featured Inland in an article which noted that the 68 year old company was a "quiet kind of company" in a business that was not "associated with glamour." However, it also noted that in the prior 6 years it had seen its sales nearly double to $1.25 billion, and it made up half the revenue of its parent company. The company was operating out of several locations in the city, including a three story building at 7536 Miles Drive on the west side of the city, just north of the airport, and at 4030 Vincennes Road Other sites were operated on Moller Road on the far northwest side,
The company was re-named and branded as Inland Paperboard and Packaging Inc. in 1996, and in 2012, it, along with Temple-Inland, was sold to International Paper, which continues to operate at various former Inland locations around Indianapolis. The former plant on Morris Street still stands, and currently houses the Republic National Distributing Company. As noted at the beginning of this post, much of the building is covered in a more modern metal exterior, although the the western most part of the building still has its brick facade. I am guessing the original brick structure is underneath the sections with the modern exterior, although I am not sure when this was installed.
A note about the Krannert family, both Ellnora and Herman Krannert were major supporters of a variety of philanthropic causes in Indianapolis and the greater Midwest. Among these were various medical facilities at Midwest universities, including the Krannert Cardiovascular Research Center at IU School of Medicine. Additionally, Inland was very active in sponsoring local activities and groups, including the Indianapolis Zoo, and the Indianapolis Symphony, among others. Finally, the Krannert's maintained a large farm in northern Marion County called Normandy Farms, which has its own history, which can be explored in this blog post from a few years ago.
Sources
Indianapolis News: August 15, 1926, October 4, 1978, February 2, 1993, September 19, 1996,
Indianapolis Star: June 25, 1925, August 15, 1925, April 10, 1927, January 12, 1930, January 10, 1971, August 29, 1981, March 26, 1992, December 10, 1992, February 7, 1993
Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Inland Container Corporation, https://indyencyclopedia.org/inland-container-corporation/
Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Activities newsletter, August 1925, https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/icc/id/163/rec/1
Inland Container Corporation, 700 W. Morris St., Indianapolis, c. 1955, https://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/JC/id/361/rec/2
Inland Container Corp. Papers, 1921-2001, Indiana Historical Society, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/inland-container-corporation-papers-1921-2001.pdf
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