Business and Industry: G - O

              Garvey International purchased by its president
"1 am both flattered and gratified that [Mary
Garvey Theroux] first made the offer to me, thus
allowing me to continue the tradition of excel-
lence, service and innovation ..."
— Bob M. White, president of Garvey International
ST. CHARLES — Bob M. White, a Kansas native who helped build Garvey International into an agribusiness powerhouse in grain -storage and rail-car leasing, now owns the firm.
As a result, he's now also the owner of the world's largest grain elevator. The St. Charles resident, who had been the firm's president, has announced his purchase of the firm from members of the Garvey family.
The St. Charles-based company, which is a diversified grain, feed and transportation firm, has annual sales that now exceed $100 million, White said. White did not disclose the purchase price.
"The offer made by the Garvey family ownership to allow my purchase of Garvey International was a long-time goal," White said in a statement.
"After much deliberation over a period of time, Mary Garvey Theroux had determined her own interestsand emphases were directed toward other pursuits," White added. "She was ready to sell.
"I am both flattered and gratified that she first made the offer to me, thus allowing me to continue the tradition of excellence, service and innovation which I have established versus extending the offer to any of our competitors or other large conglomerates."
White began his career with Garvey as a 19-year-old intern while still attending Wichita State University.
White joined the company as a regular employee in 1975 and became its president in 1983. Over the years, he created, through purchase, both the company's rail-car leasing group (since sold) and its marine division.
White's purchase includes Garvey International and its five current, wholly-owned subsidiaries: Garvey Processing Inc.; Garvey Grain Inc.; Garvey Marine Inc.; Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad; and Ottawa Export Inc.
The processing firm has plants in
Ottawa and North Kansas City.,
and manufactures products primari- ly for the dairy industry. The graln firm is a grain merchandising and storage firm with elevators in Wichi- ta, Attica, Clonmel, Dartmouth, Kalvesta, Sharon and Silica, Kan. The Wichita grain elevator" has approximately a 20-million-bushel capacity and is reputedly the world's largest grain elevator.
Garvey Marine is the largest independent provider of barge-switching and storage services on the Illinois River, and operates 12 tugboats. The railroad is a shoreline railroad that provides switching services for rail cars carrying various products.: Ottawa Export is the export market- ing arm of Garvey International.
The rail-car leasing wing was sold earlier this year.
A nine-year resident of St. Charles, White is vice chairman of Delnor- Community Hospital in Geneva;