Last updated on September 6th, 2012 at 09:16 am
Robert P. “Bob” Ingle, founder and CEO of Ingles Markets, died at the age of 77 Sunday, reports the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Ingle, fresh out of college, took out a mortgage on his mother’s house in 1963 and founded Ingles grocery store chain on Hendersonville Road in Asheville. The store did $8,500 in sales its first week and grew into a multibillion-dollar powerhouse with more than 200 locations in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
Based in Black Mountain, Ingles Markets is one of the largest employers in WNC.
Robert P. “Bobby” Ingle II is the new CEO of Ingles Markets following the death of his father, Robert P. “Bob” Ingle, the supermarket chain said Monday to the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Ingle II, 42, has been company chairman since 2004 and a member of its board of directors since 1997. He has been an Ingles employee since February 1997.
Ingles has 203 supermarkets in six southeastern states and operates 70 neighborhood shopping centers. With 18,800 workers as of September 2010, Ingles for years has been one of Western North Carolina’s largest employers.
