CGB's origination...
CGB began operations on January 1, 1970 with Bob Frane, Claude Crowley, and one secretary. Bob Frane and Claude Crowley were CGB’s founders and original owners. They were located in a small office at the Merchant’s Exchange Building in St. Louis, Missouri. From its humble beginnings with only three employees, CGB now has roughly 1300 employees throughout the US.
Our transport services have been central to our success from the very beginning. CGB was built on the idea that we could best serve customers by allowing barge freight rates to fluctuate with supply and demand.
CTLC's beginning...
In the Fall of 1995 CGB decided to install and begin operations of their first Mid-Stream vessel anchorage. Placed at MP 134 on the Left descending bank of the Lower Mississippi River, this first mid-stream facility changed the face of CGB’s terminal business. Always a major player in the inland transportation barge business and Midwestern grain industries, CGB had also operated a handful of terminals in the Midwest that handled products and commodities other than grain and grain by-products. With the installation of the mid-stream facility at MP 134, CGB had now created a location that could become a “Hub” to base the rest of its non-grain activity around. This facility, along with the addition of two more in the immediate years to follow, utilized large floating cranes to discharge import tonnage from ocean-going vessels to inland barges.
Focused on import tonnage of over 30 different products such as fertilizers, pig iron, semi-finished steel, minerals, alloys, etc.; CTLC was formed in the Summer of 1996 to better channel the Terminal Groups activities from the time import tonnage hit the Gulf Coast until it was safely delivered to customers throughout the United States. By utilizing mid-stream anchorages to capture these import tons, arranging and loading barges that were previously moving north empty, and then working with these same import customers to handle their unloading and delivery needs through CGB’s terminals and inland transportation companies such as rail cars and trucks, CTLC grew and flourished.