Bob Ingle

From Staff Reports

The founder and chief executive officer of Ingles Markets grocery stores died after an extended illness last Sunday in Asheville, according to a news release on the company’s website.

Robert “Bob” Ingle, a third-generation grocer, founded the company in 1965 after opening his first store two years earlier. He also served as the board chairman until 2004 and president until 1982.

He was born in Asheville on July 16, 1933 to Beulah G. Ingle and Elmer Ingle. He grew up as a member of The Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village. The Ingle family is of long standing in the grocery business and by the age of six, young Robert was working in his father’s store.

His father started a grocery store on Hendersonville Road in 1929. He began hanging out at the store at age four. However, his father sold the grocery in 1956.
As a young man, he attended Christ School and later graduated from Lee Edwards High School in 1952. After graduation, he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was honorably discharged in 1954 with the rank of sergeant.

Upon graduation from college, Ingle reportedly mortgaged his mother’s house in 1963 and opened his first store on Hendersonville Road. The store is said to have recorded $8,500 in sales in its first week, battling grocery chains such as Winn-Dixie, A&P and Colonial, which controlled 93 percent of the area’s food sales.
Ingle’s humble start with one location, staffed by him, his wife and a handful of workers, eventually grew into of a multibillion grocery store chain, with 203 locations in six southeastern states.

In addition, the company operates 70 neighborhood shopping centers, all but 12 of which contain an Ingles supermarket. Ingle took the company public in 1987.
The company’s board of directors elected Robert Ingle II, 42, to succeed his father as CEO, according to the news release. The younger Ingle has been a member of the board of directors since February 1997 and has served as chairman of the board since May 2004. He has been employed by the company in a variety of positions since 1985. Ingles, based in Black Mountain, is one of the Western North Carolina’s largest employers.

Ingle was active in philanthropic endeavors and served on numerous boards, including as a trustee at the Aston Park Hospital.