Houchens Industries continues to show it is a business on the move, especially with its recent purchase of Synaxis Van Meter Insurance Agency Inc.

The Bowling Green-based company will absorb the insurance companies into its Houchens Insurance Group, making it one of the nation’s largest employee stock ownership plan-owned insurance agencies with more than $250 million in gross annual sales, more than 130 employees and six offices in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The acquisition of this new business is great news for Houchens Industries, as well as the insurance agency, which will return to its roots as a locally owned company. It is just one more example of its continued growth in this area and beyond.

Houchens employees more than 10,000 people, in multiple states, and in areas ranging from equipment manufacturing to groceries.

It is now recognized as the United States’ largest 100 percent employee owned company. Its annual revenue has grown from $280 million in 1994 to over $2.3 billion in 2004.

This isn’t Houchens’ first venture in the insurance business since it is also the owner of Center of Insurance and Insurance Specialists, based in Bowling Green.

&#8220It allows us to represent more markets and to expand our presence in the community,” said Andy Barker, executive vice-president of operations and sales for Van Meter.

Houchens has been a fixture in our community for nearly 100 years. Houchens Industries was started in 1917 by Ervin G. Houchens in Barren County. In 1931, the first &#8220Houchens” convenient grocery store was opened and in 1941 Mr. Houchens moved his headquarters to Bowling Green.

They have been a staple in this community and one that we should all be proud of.

From their humble beginnings, they have turned a small-time business into a large empire.