Ingles Markets history

Landy B. Laney had been an executive officer and director of Ingles since 1972.

To support its expanded operations, Ingles Markets in 1978 built a new warehouse/distribution center in Asheville, North Carolina.

But A&P shuts its doors in Asheville in 1979.

Annual production at Milkco has grown from 5 million gallons in 1982 to over 60 million gallons today.

In December 1986 it sold 23 shopping centers to Atlanta's IRT Property Company for $50 million, although the book value on those properties was only $33 million.

In September 1987 Ingles became a public corporation by selling its stock under the symbol IMKTA on the NASDAQ exchange for $13 per share.

In 1989, for example, it opened 17 new stores to reach a total of 156 in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia.

For example, it planned to open about 100 new stores in 1990, several times the number planned by Ingles.

Merchant Distributors, Inc. in November and December 1991 purchased 122,500 shares of Ingles Class A shares, giving it a total of 270,000 shares, 6.3 percent of all Class A stock.

Especially after the pre-Centennial downtown McCayesville, GA A&P shuttered due to flooding by the Toccoa/Ocoee River in 1992, which was incidentally a Charlotte division A&P rather than Atlanta.

In fiscal year 1994 Ingles opened its first store in the state of Alabama.

To deal with the challenge of growth, in 1995 Ingles created two new positions.

To provide more space for its goods and services, Ingles Markets on June 30, 1996, opened its first MegaStore, a 59,000-square-foot facility in the Atlanta suburb of Dacula.

The A&P's appear to have closed in the late 70's or early 80's at the latest, despite A&P soldiering on in Brevard, Franklin, Sylva, Bryson City and Murphy until the Charlotte division closed in 1997-98.

JimBobGAOctober 7, 2009 at 7:42 PMIn a conversation with a friend of mine who spent most of his life in Asheville, the Ingle's was added to Innsbruck Mall after the mall opened.