Quaker Oats to Close Can Making Facility

Quaker Oats Co. has announced that it will close its can manufacturing plant in Indianapolis in two months, eliminating about 160 jobs.

The plant is scheduled to close on Nov. 14 and the majority of its assets will be sold to Heekin Can Inc., Quaker said in a news release.

Heekin will use the facility to supply cans for the manufacture of food products in the adjacent Gatorade-Van Camp processing plant and at other Quaker plants.

It was not known if Heekin would take on any of the workers currently employed at the facility.

The company attributed the closure to “excess manufacturing capacity and ongoing investment requirements in a declining can manufacturing business.”

The can manufacturing plant became part of Quaker’s operations with the 1983 purchase of Stokely-Van Camp Inc.