After nearly 90 years in operation, the business of manufacturing metal cans and creating labels for them remains fun for the operators of the family-run Independent Can Co. – they'll stop once it is no longer fun."If it's not fun, let's stop doing it," Rick Huether, president, CEO and chairman of the Belcamp-based company, said during a recent interview at company headquarters.Huether is part of the third generation of his family to run Independent Can. The company was founded in Baltimore in 1929 by the Parker family. Rick's grandfather, Harry L. Huether, and his grandmother, Martha May Huether, purchased it in 1949."I've probably worked in every end of the business," Doug Huether, son of Harry and father of Rick, said.Doug Huether, 90, stepped down as chairman of the company's board last year, a position he had held since 1970. He served as CEO until 1997.Huether said he stepped down as the business became "more and more complex.""The complexity got beyond my ability to cope, really," he said. "I wanted to change before people said, 'Why don't you change?'"He remains active with Independent Can, coming to work five days a week. He tries to visit the factory floor as often as he can."I just enjoy being on the floor with the people," Huether said.His son, Rick, took on the role of chairman after his father stepped down. Rick's sister, Cathy McClelland, serves on the board and works as an "inside salesperson," handling customer care.Rick's son, Ryan, is the vice president of lithography and package distribution, and his nephew, Bob McClelland, is the chief financial officer.Doug Huether noted one of his great-granddaughters worked for the company briefly."We work hard at keeping it a family-owned business," he said. "We show up every day, we try to make friends with our employees and do a good job for our customers."Huether said he and his family gain "happiness" from their work."It gives us happiness, enjoyment to be around the folks that we work with every day," he said. "It just feels like we're, hopefully, giving back for having been very blessed to be doing what we're doing."Independent Can was in the Canton neighborhood in southeast Baltimore before moving its headquarters to Harford County in the mid-1980s.About 270 people work at the 395,000-square-foot facility on a 17-acre site at 1300 Brass Mill Road."It's been a very, very happy situation," Huether said of being in Harford County.The Belcamp facility serves as company headquarters – administrative, marketing and sales offices – and a site for manufacturing cans for an array of foods and consumer products, components of cans, such as lids, for companies that put their products in cans, as well as metal lithography, the process of printing custom-designed labels on the cans.The cans are made out of steel with an electro-coated surface, according to Rick Huether.Doug Huether keeps in his office a book printed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Independent Can in 2004.The book, which has a blue cover, is titled "Independent Can Company: Striving to be the Best for 75 Years," and it was written by Robert R. Morris."I can truthfully say that I have never had to go to work," Huether wrote in a message on Page 6. "I wanted to go to work and be a part of the excitement and efforts expended in beating our competition."The company celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2014, and banners marking that anniversary are still hanging around the manufacturing areas.More than 300 people work for Independent Can company-wide. Its distribution hub is in Tolleson, Ariz., and there are manufacturing plants in Conneaut, Ohio, Vandalia, Ohio, and Fort Madison, Iowa, according to its website, http://www.independentcan.com.Company historyThe founding of the company and its growth in one of Baltimore's industrial hubs is documented in Morris' book.Seafood caught in the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay was brought to Baltimore's harbor, processed and canned in nearby facilities before it was distributed throughout the country via rail.Independent Can's founder, Edwin Augustus "Gus" Parker, arrived in Baltimore shortly before World War I.Parker started a company to decorate metal cans, which had been manufactured by other companies, in 1919.He founded Independent Can as a way to stay ahead of the changing canning business – his company manufactured the cans and produced the labels through lithography.The first can, a large gray lard container, was produced at Independent Can's South Howard Street plant in January 1929. The can is on display in a showcase, with a series of other containers produced by Independent Can, at company headquarters.Jim VanTassel, left, a 28-year-employee, and two-year employee Joe Bowgus inspect a batch of lids as they come out of the machine before they are packaged at the Independent Can Company in Belcamp.Gus Parker died of pneumonia in June 1929, according to Morris' book. Harry Evitt, Parker's business partner, was named president. Evitt steered the company through the Great Depression and World War II, until 1944 when the late Gus Parker's son, Winslow, became president and his family regained a controlling interest.Winslow Parker, known as Winnie, then wanted to sell the company.Harry Huether, who grew up in Baltimore, owned and operated the Harry L. Huether Company at the time. He specialized in handling tin plate scrap, warehousing it and "retinning" pots and pans after the factory tinning wore off, according to Morris' book.Harry Huether was a tin supplier for Independent Can. The Parkers offered to sell to the Huethers in 1948.The sale was completed in 1949 and Independent Can was moved from South Howard Street to Huether's company facilities on President Street.Doug Huether, who served in the Marine Corps during World War II, started working for his father after he graduated from college.He started in his father's tin warehouse, driving a forklift and collecting scrap. Once his father purchased Independent Can and dissolved his tin companies, Doug began working on the administrative side of the new company."I can still tell everybody in the plant that there's nothing they're doing that I haven't done," he said.Independent Can moved to a larger facility on South Lakewood Avenue in Canton in 1951, according to Morris' book.Harry Huether operated Independent Can as a sole proprietorship and later formed a partnership with his son and sales manager Bill Williamson.Doug Huether took over the company after his father died in 1969. He led the effort to incorporate Independent Can, with a board of directors, in 1970.The company expanded through the 1970s, with new product lines and the opening of the Fort Madison, Iowa, plant in 1980.Rick Huether came on board in 1975. He asked his father for a budget to see "if he could turn a lard can into a popcorn can." Rick, who had a $15,000 budget, was successful.Decorations for cans, such as popcorn tins that are common holiday gifts, are about 60 percent of Independent Can's business today, according to Rick."It better look just as good as the product that's inside," Rick said of the container.Food products such as chocolate, popcorn and potato chips are stored in Independent Can containers, as well as consumer products such as the AOL internet company's promotional CDs, which were a common sight in mailboxes during the 1990s, and lighter fluid.A section of the plant is dedicated to making cans for the fluid that fuels Zippo lighters."You name a good, and it can go in a can," Rick said.Move to Harford CountyCompany officials began looking to move out of Baltimore in the early 1980s as the city shifted away from its industrial base."They didn't want us," Doug said.They considered sites in Baltimore County, but county leaders were more interested in high-tech firms, according to Doug. Land was also more affordable in Harford County.They bought the Brass Mill Road site in 1984, with a plan to move in gradually over five years."Harford County was the most attentive to our needs," Rick said.Jim Richardson, the county's former director of economic development, said the Huethers have been "great spokespersons for Harford County and the qualities of Harford County."Richardson served as economic development director for eight years before becoming the county's human resources director after Harford County Executive Barry Glassman took office in late 2014.He noted the Huethers have invested in the community, as well as their business."It's people that have the financial ability to make those investments that improves the quality of life for everybody in Harford County," Richardson said.Independent Can had 62 employees at the time of its transition to Harford, and the majority moved from Baltimore and the surrounding communities.The company headquarters is in the midst of an industrial section of Belcamp, surrounded by other manufacturing and distribution facilities.Bryan Powell, the vice president of engineering, gave a tour of the manufacturing and printing centers.Powell, a Bel Air resident, has been with Independent Can for 20 years. He started as a staff-level engineer."I like the family-owned company atmosphere," he said.Powell said he enjoys "just the change, just the growth, the people, just making things, being in manufacturing."He walked through the plant, greeting and joking with workers who were manning their machines.Many functions have become automated over the years, but workers still have their eyes on racks of finished cans, while machines cut bottle and jar caps out of sheets of metal.Employees ride three-wheel bicycles, with baskets affixed to the rears, to and fro on the factory floor.Powell said mechanics and electricians use them to get around the plant."There's a lot of area to cover," he said.Automated machines were also working steadily. A case erector, or automated packing machine, assembled, packed and stacked cardboard boxes."One person is just managing the system, along with shop support," Rick Huether said.He noted, while walking through the Zippo section, that Zippo is Independent Can's largest customer, and Independent Can is Zippo's largest vendor."It's a good relationship, good people, American made," Rick said. "They ship all over the world; 100 percent of what they make is guaranteed for life."Future challengesMany Independent Can employees have been with the company for decades, which means an accumulation of what Rick Huether calls "tribal knowledge," or institutional knowledge."When a customer calls up and says, 'I want something,' people on the floor know what it is," he said.Richardson said there are few manufacturing and distribution companies in Harford County that remain family owned."They're fairly unique, in the number of generations [involved] and the time that they've been here," he said of Independent Can.A major challenge facing the company is finding employees familiar with the array of new technology used to track products and keep up with a multitude of food safety and sanitation standards from government agencies, as well their customers who make the food and drink products."You can't know everything anymore," Rick said. "You hope that you have experts."It is also becoming difficult to find younger employees in Maryland who have vocational expertise and who are willing to put in the years it takes to become good at their jobs."They don't understand that it takes four years to become a good pressman," Rick said.State leaders have pushed in recent years to attract more technology companies to Maryland. Comptroller Peter Franchot visited Independent Can recently, and the Huethers encouraged him to have the state invest more in educating young people to work with their hands."We want the state to understand that we need more vocational training," Rick said.He stressed Independent Can offers paid training and apprenticeships, with the opportunity to move into a well-paid full-time job. The company also offers profit sharing to employees."We've had fathers, sons, uncles, brothers, sisters working here," Rick said. "It's really the heritage of people working hand in hand."Independent Can remains independently owned, despite regular offers to purchase it.Rick said the company handles about one or two offers a month."There is a lot of money chasing business, and we have not entertained any of those interests, as long as we continue to have fun," he said.