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anyone in the Ice business?

waterboy222

waterboy222

New member
Frozen water, not drugs!

Considering branching a little bit from our water treatment consulting company and adding a little additional business. Seems I have the space, water and electric available to look into this. Just curious if there are any forums or sites out there that can explain process, merchandising revenues, etc..

Theres only one ice company around here and they kinda have a monopoly I imagine.
 
You mena like bags of ice at the party store right? My Dad did that when I was younger. There was actually ALOT of stuff to deal with. If you are handy with refrigeration equipment (I MEAN REAL HANDY!!!!!!) you could probably do alright. You need to set up merchandisers at the stores, keep those running. Refrigerated delivery truck(s), keep the reefers running on those. THEN get the equipment to make the ice. We used to manually bag and twist tie each bag. Automation is available and pricey. Huge ice makers are bucks and alot of maintenance. He did it for 4-5 years and let it go. Of course it was seasonal here in MI. Good Luck if you do it. You'll get a whole new appreciation when you dump a 10lb bag of cubes into your cooler:)
 
I know 3 people that went in to that biz. Only one was still around after the 2nd year and that was only because he charged out the zing-zing for ice sculptures for parties, weddings, etc. He had to work almost every weekend and around the clock leading up to the weekend because you can't carve the ice too early. If you do, you have to store it colder which turned it white vs clear or some thing along those lines.

All the ice trucks in my area are from the 1980's- it seems none of them are making enough money to upgrade (my guess..)
 
I have a friend that sells ice makers all over the northeastern states. He hooked our beach club up with one last year that makes 250lbs of ice a day and the thing is rockin! I can probably hook you up with his number if you would like.
 
The startup costs on this "small project" are astronomical! Even a used reefer that will stay cold enough to keep ice is way above what I was considering. Plus all the equipment to keep the ice cold and bagging equipment, yikes.. I think ill stick to melted ice instead!
 
I saw a cool thing down in NC last year. It was a drive-up Ice Vendor. Unmanned and automated. You just put in you money and out shot a bag of ice. You did have to tie it yourself tho. Or there was a chute you could just put your cooler under and fill that way. Pretty slick.
 
insanity said:
I saw a cool thing down in NC last year. It was a drive-up Ice Vendor. Unmanned and automated. You just put in you money and out shot a bag of ice. You did have to tie it yourself tho. Or there was a chute you could just put your cooler under and fill that way. Pretty slick.
Click to expand...

there are a few of those down here ,love them for the ease of it.
 
What a coincedence...
YEsterday at work I guy is asking me about fridge repairs and an icemaker for his RV
Today Arbie's up the road has "BAG OF ICE $1.00" on their special sign out front....Must be that time of year.
 
rschap1 said:
What a coincedence...
YEsterday at work I guy is asking me about fridge repairs and an icemaker for his RV
Today Arbie's up the road has "BAG OF ICE $1.00" on their special sign out front....Must be that time of year.
Click to expand...

Do you work on RVs?
 
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