First Brands Group LLC filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development at the end of December 2025, announcing its plan to close the Dalton Corp. gray iron foundry in Warsaw, IN, by March 1. The closing will be permanent, it explained, affecting a total of 262 employees.
The 345,000-sq.ft. foundry casts large-dimensioned, complex iron castings for agriculture equipment, automotive, construction, and medium/heavy-duty truck manufacturing, among various other markets. With automated green-sand molding lines it produces parts from 20 to 1,400 pounds. The operation also includes a pattern shop, coremaking, melting capacity of nearly 100,000 tons/year.
The Dalton Corp. foundry was established in 1910, expanding through the following decades by diversification and acquisition.
First Brands Group is a holding company focused on automotive aftermarket parts, with subsidiaries like FRAM, Raybestos, and Autolite. It filed for bankruptcy in September 2025, under heavy debt and unstable management, and lately it has introduced a sell-off plan to stabilize its financial position.
