James Marine Acquires Big River Propeller
Big River Wheels LLC, a James Marine Inc. affiliate, has announced the purchase of Big River Propeller LLC. James Marine is headquartered in Paducah, Ky., while Big River Propeller is in nearby LaCenter, Ky.
“While the James wheel shops currently offer quality repair of all commercial vessel propellers, bringing Big River Propeller into the James family of companies gives us a new and proven process for repairing, pitching and maintaining wheels, bringing innovation and a fresh new management and marketing perspective to our existing shops, and helps James establish a firm base for further growth of our wheel shop services throughout the entire country,” said Jeff James, president of James Marine Inc. “The benefits of this acquisition are countless, and we will look to capitalize on them immediately.
“Big River will take over our existing shop at Elmwood (La.) in short order and offer the new services in our Gulf locations,” he said. “We look forward to working with all the existing Big River Propeller employees and welcome their expertise to develop a better product for our valued customers. We are pleased to announce that Sam Davis, current president of Big River Propeller, will continue to be responsible for the LaCenter facility and will take on leadership of all the James wheel shops going forward.”
“The Big River Propeller family is excited to announce they will be joining forces with the James Marine family,” Davis said. “This move helps us fulfill our goal to provide top-notch quality propeller repair services for inland marine and the blue water market in our current region and to expand our services to the Gulf Coast locations.”
“We are thankful to the entire James Marine team for this opportunity,” he said.
“Many thanks go to Sam Davis, Tyler Davis and Keshia Hitchings and their team at Big River Propeller,” James said. “We look forward to being able to offer Big River Propeller’s quality and innovative process, alongside the proven James’ processes, at all of our facilities in the future in our ongoing efforts to provide the very best all-around shipyard services to the inland marine market.”
