Inland Container Corporation

In March 1925, Herman Krannert founded the Inland Box Corporation in Indianapolis, operating out of the old Nordyke and Marmon factory until the company’s new plant and offices at 700 West Morris Street were ready the next year. Within two years, business had more than doubled and the plant employed 600 people working both day and night shifts.

Inland purchased the Gardner Harvey Container Company of Middletown, Ohio in 1930 and changed its name to Inland Container Corporation. The company became the country’s third-largest corrugated box manufacturer by 1952. In 1960, Inland went public. When Krannert stepped down in 1970, annual sales were $197 million and the company operated 27 plants.

By 1978, when publishing giant Time Inc., purchased Inland and made it a wholly owned subsidiary, annual sales had grown to $397 million. In 1981, Inland closed its original West Morris Street plant due to the increasing costs of operating the outdated facility. Two years later, Inland became a subsidiary of Temple-Inland, a Texas-based holding company, although Inland’s corporate headquarters remained in Indianapolis.

Inland prospered during the 1980s, with annual sales reaching $1.1 billion by 1989. That year Inland moved to new corporate headquarters on the city’s far northwest side, a site close to other Inland facilities, including the company’s new $17 million graphics facility on the city’s far west side.

As of 1992, Inland operated seven paper mills that produced 2.3 million tons of containerboard and 39 corrugated box manufacturing plants. Ranked as one of the country’s top four corrugated box manufacturers, Inland posted annual sales of $1.25 billion, providing about half of the revenues for parent company Temple-Inland. In 2012, International Paper Company, one of the largest paper companies in the world, acquired Temple-Inland. International Paper is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.