born in casula, the son of farmer walter ingham, he was known as "bob" from an early age. on his father's death in 1953, bob ingham and his older brother, jack, took over ingham enterprises pty limited, a small family-run poultry breeding business founded in 1918. the brothers built the company into the largest producer of chickens and turkeys in australia. now headquartered in the sydney suburb of casula, the operation was sold in 2014 for 880 million. in june 2014, the "business review weekly" assessed ingham's net worth at a$1,021 million. in november 2016 inghams group was listed on the asx at a$3.15 per share representing a 12 times fy2017 price-to-earnings multiple.