Ingles Markets, the Black Mountain-based grocery chain, suffered $35 million to $55 million in property and inventory losses from Tropical Storm Helene, the company announced Tuesday.
Insurance is expected to cover $10 million to $15 million of that, according to a news release, leaving the company with up to $40 million in losses.
The storm caused significant damage to Ingles’ distribution center in hard-hit Black Mountain and several of its 198 stores across the Southeast. Four stores – in Swannanoa, Morganton, Newland and Spruce Pine – remain closed and are not expected to open for three to nine months.
Some investors had feared worse news for Ingles after national news images revealed devastating flooding and destruction. The longer-term impact on the company may not be known for months when sales are reported.
Ingles’ massive distribution center in Black Mountain took a serious blow from Helene, including damage to the railroad tracks in front of the building. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle
Many grocery stores throughout the region were closed for days following the storm. Asheville lacked power or water for weeks, and stores that did reopen had limited hours and availability of items like meats and deli foods.
On Oct. 7, 10 days after the storm, a worker at the North Asheville Ingles, still without power, greeted customers, “Cash only, and no ice.”
An Ingles spokeswoman did not respond to a request from Asheville Watchdog for comment.
The losses reported by the company are “on the lower end of what it could have been given the destruction,” said Justin McAuliffe, an analyst at GAMCO Investors Inc. of New York, an Ingles stockholder.
As of the end of June, Ingles had $355 million in cash, McAuliffe said, “so I think this seems like, for sure, a manageable sort of financial impact for them.”
Video footage and aerial images showed the Ingles distribution center partially underwater after the Sept. 27 storm dumped record rainfall, swelled rivers to unprecedented levels, and caused deadly landslides and flooding across the region.
Employee killed in storm
At Ingles’ Black Mountain headquarters, “we had loss of power, critical infrastructure, transport vehicles, inventory, and yes even loss of life,” the company said in an Oct. 2 Facebook post.
Gabriel Gonzalez had gone to work in driving rain at the Ingles distribution center near the Swannanoa River when floodwaters swept him away, according to the Catholic News Herald. Gonzalez’ co-workers called him “the happy one,” the article said, because he was always singing as he loaded tractor-trailers for the regional grocery store chain.
Ingles’ investors and financial analysts watched the aftermath of the storm from afar, trying to assess the damage to the company with stores in many areas of Helene’s path.
“It was a huge tragedy,” said McAuliffe. “I was trying to kind of piece together information from social media and videos of different locations.”
Ingles’ stock price fell 18 percent from the month before the storm as news of the devastation spread, McAuliffe said.
The stock price, $62 as of Tuesday, was down $12 from Sept. 26.
The property and inventory losses, which Ingles cautioned could change “due to the complexity and preliminary nature of the information currently available to us,” represents a one-time loss.
The company could see additional losses in sales from the closed stores and others operating at reduced capacity over the next two quarters, McAuliffe said.
“A larger question is just sort of the general economy of the communities that Ingles is in,” he said. “All of the businesses in the region, how quickly does the local economy kind of ramp up?”
Ingles said in the news release that its distribution center “is fully operational and has returned to normal operations.”
“Our thoughts are with everyone impacted in our communities who lost lives, loved ones, homes and access to basic necessities,” the release said. “We are proud to see our hard-working associates come together with neighbors and local resources to continue the Ingles commitment of serving our customers and communities.”
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-01 13:32:00
(The Center Square) – Directions on curriculum measured age appropriate and access in public libraries to materials considered harmful to minors are in a proposal at the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Parental Rights for Curriculum and Books, also known as House Bill 595, adds to state law a section for age-appropriate instruction for students; a human growth and development program for fourth and fifth graders; and says reproductive health and safety education shall not happen before seventh grade.
Rep. John A. Torbett, R-Gaston
NCLeg.gov
The bill authored by Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, and filed Monday additionally has sections on instructional materials and clarification of “defenses for material harmful to minors.” Public library access for minors is in a fourth section.
Gender identity instruction, a buzzword of recent election cycles, is prohibited prior to students entering the fifth grade. The proposal extends that to prior to the entering seventh grade.
The bill would require parental consent to learn about some elements associated with sex education – infections, contraception, assault and human trafficking.
State law allows schools the option to adopt local policies on parental consent for the reproductive health education.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 16:37:00
(The Center Square) – Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing.
“As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”
More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in deportation of people accused of being in gangs in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app.
Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.
Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciar Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.
Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth.
“Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 15:21:00
(The Center Square) – Wildfires continued to burn Monday in the Carolinas, though a sign of optimism arose with a burning ban lifted in 41 South Carolina counties and measured rainfall in both states.
Largest of the fires is Table Rock in Pickens and Greenville counties of South Carolina. The Black Cove fire is burning in North Carolina’s Polk and Henderson counties, the Rattlesnake fire is burning Haywood County, and the Alarka 5 fire is in Swain County.
South Carolina’s Horry County at the Atlantic Ocean and North Carolina border, and the northwestern counties of Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens and Oconee remain under a burning ban. In North Carolina, all 100 counties have a ban in effect.
The Table Rock fire size is about 13,191 acres in South Carolina and 574 in North Carolina, the Forestry Commission of the former said. Containment is about 30%.
The Persimmon Ridge fire is 2,078 acres in size with 64% containment. Rain Sunday into Monday measured nearly 1 inch.
The Covington Drive Fire in Myrtle Beach is about 85% contained and in mop-up and strengthened firebreaks stage.
In North Carolina, the Black Cove complex of fires are 7,672 acres in size. It includes the Black Cove (3,502 acres, 36% contained), Deep Woods (3,971 acres, 32% contained) and Fish Hook (199 acres, 100% contained) fires. Rainfall overnight into Monday helped the battle.
