Prime Inc's Low chosen as Top CEO
May 1, 2003 12:00 PM
Prime Inc, a refrigerated, flatbed, and liquid bulk truckload carrier headquartered in Springfield MO, has announced that its president and owner, Robert Low, has been named Top CEO in the category of refrigerated carriers by Transport Topics magazine.
Low founded the company with one truck in 1970 in Urbana MO. By 1980, Prime was generating refrigerated revenues in excess of $50 million per year and decided to relocate its corporate headquarters to its current location at the intersection of Highway 65 and Interstate 44 in Springfield.
Within a year the company was racked by industry deregulation, spiraling interest rates and a national economic slowdown which forced the company to reorganize under Chapter 11. In 1988, Prime emerged from bankruptcy as a smaller but profitable entity. “Since then,” says Low, “we've not looked back.”
The company has diversified and expanded to include flatbed and liquid bulk divisions. “Diversification has enabled us to spread out the cost of overhead while steadily driving revenues,” Low said. Prime's annual revenues have increased from $25 million to more than a half billion dollars in less than 15 years.
The company was also selected as one of the top five best-run trucking companies in the United States, according to the study conducted by Transport Topics. Prime purchased the assets of Oklahoma City OK-based ROCOR in 2002, which it operates as RTC — a division of Prime Inc.
