The Ingham family empire began with 42 acres, a rooster and six hens in 1918. In 1953 Bob Ingham and his brother Jack inherited a small chicken breeding business from their father Walter and created an Australasian powerhouse, with poultry operations extending all over Australia and New Zealand. Inghams Enterprises became the nation's largest poultry producer, employing with up to 9000 workers in the late 2000s. Bob died at his Sydney home on Tuesday aged 88, his family said in a statement. Jack died 17 years ago in 2003. "The Australian success story of Inghams Enterprises, recognised by many and which became a national icon, was underpinned by hard work and Bob and Jack's philosophy of 'Doing the right things and doing things right'," the family said. The company thrived by entering into supply arrangements with major retail and quick-service restaurant customers, to ultimately cater to shifting consumer preferences towards value-enhanced poultry products. The family's extraordinary business success allowed the Ingham brothers to indulge their passion for horse racing through Inghams Enterprises. They established the largest Australian-owned thoroughbred stud and raced, among others, champions Octagonal and his son Lonhro, with their distinctive cerise colours becoming well known on the racing circuit. Bob sold the Inghams Bloodstock operation in March 2008 to the Australian arm of the global Darley Stud, owned by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. At half a billion dollars it was the biggest deal ever recorded in the global history of thoroughbred racing and breeding at the time. "Once approached by Darley, I decided it was an opportunity that I should accept," Bob said at the time. It encompassed Ingham's two thoroughbred studs, training operations at Flemington in Melbourne and Warwick Farm in Sydney, 230 employees and about 1,000 horses. Inghams Enterprises, which was headquartered in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Casula, was later sold by Bob to global private equity firm TPG for $880 million in 2013. In 2014, Business Review Weekly assessed Bob's net worth in excess of $1 billion. His philanthropy was also well known and he donated millions of dollars to community and health causes. His vision for an independent specialist centre for health and medical research facility in Liverpool was realised in 2012 when the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research was opened. The Ingham Institute, a not-for-profit medical research organisation for Sydney's southwest, undertakes medical research specifically for the needs of the local population and wider Australia. The institute's five research streams are cancer research, clinical services, population and health services research, injury and rehabilitation and mental health. Bob's wife Norma died 10 years ago. He is survived by children Lyn, Debbie, Robby, and John, as well as 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Australian Associated Press