Ingram Barge Company Announces Infrastructure Subsidiary
Ingram Barge Company LLC announced the creation of a subsidiary, Ingram Infrastructure Group LLC, on February 2.
Creation of Ingram Infrastructure Group, which will provide material handling and supply chain solutions within the Ingram corporate structure, was fueled by finalizing its acquisitions of Inland River Transport Holdings and NexStar Solutions, according to a news release from Ingram Marine Group. The move marks a sizable expansion in Ingram’s services and assets.
Ingram acquired SCF, a provider of integrated river transportation and logistics services, from SEACOR Holdings Inc. following the signing of a purchase agreement in October.
In addition to acquiring SCF, Ingram has also acquired NexStar Solutions LLC, a logistics infrastructure consulting company specializing in comprehensive advisory services to investors, governments and organizations. As part of that acquisition, Bill Kinzeler, Daniel Lester and Frank Prentiss have joined Ingram Infrastructure LLC as the senior leadership team. The NexStar team has experience managing more than 100 terminal assets, 30 railroads and more than 900 trucking assets over the last 20 years, Ingram Marine Group said. Within that set of assets, the NexStar team has handled more than 200 different commodities.
Ingram operates on more than 4,500 miles of the U.S. inland waterways system, transporting agriculture and industrial commodities via 4,100 covered and open dry-cargo and liquid tank barges and 140 towboats. With these acquisitions, the company said it will be able to leverage its expertise in marine transportation to become “a fully integrated, end-to-end supply chain solutions provider.”
The company noted that the acquisitions also include bringing eight new terminal locations into Ingram’s portfolio, enabling bulk, break-bulk and containerized storage and handling services with connectivity to marine, rail and road transportation. With the expansion into the terminals business, Ingram can now provide multi-modal and multi-product distribution solutions for North American shippers and consignees, the company said.
“Today’s announcements are the latest moves that show our continued commitment to add value for our customers, bring on new customers and expand the services we can offer,” Ingram President and CEO John Roberts said. “We are proud of our history as one of the nation’s leading inland marine companies. Expanding our footprint to offer a full suite of transportation and logistics services will be a game changer for the marketplace and a huge value-add for our customers.”
Kinzeler will serve as senior vice president and manager of the business unit, Lester as senior vice president of business development and Prentiss as commercial vice president. Collectively, they bring more than 60 years of industry experience to Ingram Infrastructure, the company said.
“We are going to set the standard of excellence in marine, road and rail transportation and distribution,” Ingram Chief Operating Officer Aaron Barrett said. “We are excited to marry our deep marine transportation knowledge and track record with additional capacity in material handling and supply chain solutions. Coming on the heels of the creation of Ingram Logistics Services, which we recently launched, we offer customers a suite of services unmatched by anyone else in the space.”
Ingram Marine Group said the creation of the new subsidiary is part of a larger effort by the company to expand the suite of services it can offer customers. For example, it noted that Ingram Logistics Services was created in 2021 to offer a single point of contact for a full range of customized logistics services. It envisions the addition of Ingram Infrastructure as an enhancement of its end-to-end supply chain solutions.
“The new suite of services will be the most comprehensive storage and distribution solution in North America. The combination of asset and non-assets resources, coupled with vast commodity experience and forward-thinking technologies, will offer shippers and consignees both innovation and brand protection for their most complex supply chains,” the company said.
More information about Ingram Infrastructure Group is available at ingraminfrastructure.com.
