Ingram Trucking Inc history

After the arrival of a new company president in 1969, the distributor, which had been making about $3 million in trade sales, began a series of innovative programs.

In 1970, the company made tentative plans to sell stock to the public in order to finance further expansion, but those plans were dropped in June.

In 1972, Ingram Book built on these gains by developing a microfiche system that provided weekly inventory updates to booksellers.

However, in 1973, Ingram did form a joint venture to build an oil refinery in Louisiana with Northeast Petroleum Industries, Inc.

In 1974, Ingram acquired Tampimex Oil, a London-based petroleum broker with revenues of $680 million.

By the end of 1976, Ingram's book distribution unit had also become the predominant American wholesaler of trade books after revolutionizing the book distribution industry.

Ingram Book followed up on these advances by forming the Ingram Retail Advisory Council, made up of independent booksellers, at the 1977 convention of the American Booksellers Association.

Ingram Micro was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, CA.“

In 1984, Ingram moved to double the size of this operation when it purchased two United States Steel Corporation barge lines.

In 1985, however, Ingram announced a substantial investment in its petroleum wellhead equipment manufacturer and supplier.

In March 1992, Ingram strengthened its distribution operations further when the company purchased the Commtron Corporation, a videocassette wholesaler, and merged it with its Ingram Entertainment, Inc. subsidiary, which also distributed videocassettes.

In August 1993, Ingram Micro Belgium acquired Zedd, (Zaventem Electronic Dealer Distribution) and much of its assets including the right to distribute Hewlett Packard products.

By 1997, it was found at number 113 on the Fortune 500 list.

By 2000, Ingram Industries had seen its sales grow to over $2 billion.