Ingram Barge Company Named Paducah Business Of Year
Ingram Barge Company received the Business of the Year Award January 26 during the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce’s 85th Annual Dinner and Business Celebration.
John Roberts, Ingram’s president and CEO, and Aaron Barrett, chief operations officer and a great-grandson of founder Hank Ingram, accepted the award on the company’s behalf. It is presented annually to a Paducah area business with more than 15 employees.
The award was the final award presented during the celebration, which also recognized the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce’s 85-year history.
In presenting it, emcees Suzanne Farmer and Todd Faulker spoke about the company’s history, which dates back to 1946. While Ingram Barge Company has remained family owned and operated throughout its history, it has grown to become the largest dry cargo carrier and one of the top chemical carriers on the inland waterways, Farmer said.
“The company has been a fixture of the Paducah community for nearly four decades,” providing thousands of area jobs both on and off the river, Faulkner said.
Farmer noted that Ingram’s northern marine operations hub on South Third Street in Paducah is visited regularly by a large percentage of its 1,700 mariners for new-hire orientations, trainings and crew changes. The building is also home to roughly 100 support staff. A floating training complex moored on the Ohio River behind the facility allows employees to build their skills before heading out for their first hitch on a working vessel.
Ingram now owns and operates about 140 towboats and 4,100 barges and has facilities in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas, Faulkner added.
When asked what the award means to the company, Roberts said, “It means everything. It’s all about the people. The people made the company what it is today.”
He said he accepted the award on behalf of Ingram’s associates and mariners, adding, “I am proud to work for each and every one of them.”
The dinner and awards ceremony, sponsored by Mercy Health and CSI, was held at the Paducah-McCracken County Convention and Expo Center.
Other awards presented during the ceremony included one to Maegan Mansfield, civil engineer and project manager for Bacon Farmer Workman Engineering, as Young Leader of Western Kentucky, in part for her work in securing several U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd) grants for port projects in the region..
