Kicking the can down the road on tariffs won’t work for this Maryland manufacturer

Huether, a Republican, said he shares the administration’s goal of reinvigorating American industry.

“We want to bring as much manufacturing back to this country as you can. And as a family, we made a strategic commitment to being the specialty can maker in America with American workers,” he said. “We want to be here.”

But according to Huether, Trump has made that harder to do. He said he has never voted for the president because he dislikes how he treats people and communicates, and his trade policies have caused headaches for his business operations.

“Chaos is our nemesis,” Huether said, echoing a concern many small business owners have voiced for months amid Trump’s erratic tariff rollout: “We can’t plan when we don’t have a vision of what’s going on for the next two or three years.”

Business highlights

Independent Can Company’s wares might already be in your cupboard. The Belcamp, Maryland-based family business, in operation since 1929, makes the packaging for everything from Wegmans’ brand of Virginia peanuts to the Santa Claus tins filled with chocolates or popcorn that hit grocery shelves around the holidays.

The company manufactures cans and other containers for popular consumer brands including Swiss Miss, Zippo and Titleist. One of its newest customers is the lip balm maker Burt’s Bees. Independent Can Company — whose annual sales have averaged $130 million in recent years — used to have more than 30 domestic competitors in specialty can making, Huether estimated, many of which were family-owned businesses. Today there are just a couple left, he said.