ICE DELIVERY SYSTEMS INC history

He later coined the word “Refrigerator” to describe the appliance he patented in 1803, whose fan included President Thomas Jefferson.

In 1805 a man named Frederic Tudor was at a family picnic, enjoying an iced beverage when a joke about being the envy of all the colonists in the West Indies gave him an idea.

Soon came a savior – Nathaniel Wyeth – an innovator who became Tudor’s right-hand man in 1826, invented a much faster and safer harvesting method using a horse-drawn plow to cut the ice into large grids.

In 1847, Doctor John Gorrie, a physician scientist and humanitarian based in muggy port town of Apalachicola, Florida, sought to improve the survival rate of his malaria and yellow fever patients by cooling them down.

Gorrie’s patented ice machine in 1851 | United States Patent No.

In 1853, Alexander Twining was awarded United States Patent for developing the first commercial refrigeration system to artificially produce ice.

He died in poverty and ill health in 1855, still in his early 50s while his ice maker concept sat on the shelf for several decades.

Muhl’s patented Icemaker in 1873 | United States Patent No.

The Union Ice Company came into being in 1882 as an amalgamation of several companies, its predecessors having first begun operations back in the gold rush and bonanza days.

In 1917, the National Association of Ice Industries was formed with over 1,000 ice companies operating either pulling block ice from the northern lakes and rivers or in the early stages of mechanically produced block ice.

Southland Ice was founded in 1927 and originally included just eight ice plants and 21 retail docks, also currently known as convenience stores.

In 1928 another Southland manager, after making a visit to Alaska, planted a souvenir totem pole in from of his store.

The company struggled at the beginning of the Great Depression that was brought on by the stock market crash of 1929 and was forced into receivership.

In 1938, Henry Vogt built the first commercial automatic sized ice-machine, the Tube-Ice Machine.

Union Ice operates 70 Plants – Glendale operating branch in 1941.

1946 Southland stores, which had become known as "Tote'm Stores" are renamed "7-Eleven."

As the ice market became less important to his business, he carried more grocery and convenience items, eventually Thompson renamed his shop Seven-Eleven in 1952.

The chain expanded beyond Texas in 1954 with stores in Miami and Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1958, the first "northern" 7-Eleven stores were opened in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

After Southland was incorporated in 1961, 7-Eleven expanded even more rapidly, as the chain spread to all parts of the country, its growth accomplished in some measure by the acquisition of smaller convenience store chains.

In 1968, Charlie Lamka, an ice company operator from Amarillo, TX, invented and marketed a volumetric packaging machine that revolutionized the industry switching from ice packed in cumbersome paper bags to slick and colorful plastic (poly) bags.

Southland Ice goes public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1972.

The 5,000 mark was reached in 1974, when 7-Eleven began to spread around the world.

1983 Kaminski/Engles enters the dairy business with the acquisition of Suiza.

Just as excess refining capacity came on line, the demand for gas dropped, resulting in a $50 million pre-tax loss for Southland in 1984.

Stuart bought the prototype of what would become The Ice Factory in 1986.

One of these was Reddy Ice; it was put on the block in July 1987.

In March 1988 Southland sold Reddy Ice to Kaminski/Engles Capital Corporation for $26 million, with the bulk of the financing provided by Citicorp.

Packaged Ice was founded in 1990, with backing from a pair of venture capital funds, by James Stuart, a former accountant for the Houston office of Big Five accounting firms.

In 1996 he made an initial public offering of Suiza Foods Company, which included Reddy Ice.

That number grew to $2.5 billion in 1997, of which Reddy Ice contributed 4 percent or $66.3 million.

They rebranded themselves again in 1998 to the International Packaged Ice Association (IPIA) to represent the producers and suppliers across the globe.

Reddy Ice had been completing its share of acquisitions, as had Artic Group of Canada, the only public company in the industry until 1999.

The company was not highly valued by Wall Street, however, so in 2001 Packaged Ice began to focus on refining its corporate structure.

In May 2003 Reddy Ice Holdings Inc. was formed to house the assets of Packaged Ice, which was also renamed Reddy Ice Group, Inc.

In August 2005 the company completed an IPO that raised close to $190 million.

Arctic Glacier first entered the California market in May 2006 with the acquisition of California Ice, which consisted of six companies that as a group represented the leading independent manufacturer and distributor of packaged ice in the state.

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