Daniel, who had been president of the Can Manufacturers Institute during World War II, when manufacturers of consumer products faced widespread shortages of raw materials, oversaw a major expansion in the late 1940s and early 1950s, as Heekin added four new plants in Arkansas and Tennessee.
In 1962 construction began on a manufacturing plant in Augusta, Wisconsin, serving Bush Brothers, a major customer.
By 1964 Heekin operated eight production plants and had annual sales of about $30 million, making it the fifth-largest producer of metal containers in the United States.
[1] In 1965, Albert Heekin Jr., sold the family business to Diamond International in order to head off a possible hostile takeover.
Under Diamond's ownership, the Heekin subsidiary diversified, adding polyethylene bottles and other containers to its product lines.
Because Heekin was at the time one of the most valuable components of the Diamond conglomerate, it was quickly spun off to help finance Goldsmith's leveraged buyout.
At the same time, food producers that manufactured their own cans (as Heekin had done in its early years) were selling off their can production facilities in order to concentrate on food production, and Heekin acquired plants from Stokely USA, Quaker Oats Co., and Pittsburgh Metal Lithographing Co.
[5] The transaction was completed in 1993, helping to make Ball the third-largest manufacturer of food containers in North America.