Founded as ICE in 1906, REFRIGERATION Magazine has covered the life and business of the Ice Man for 108 years. Ice was once upon a time, a commodity, as valuable as heating oil, electricity or other power sources. Delivered by horse-drawn wagons, blocks of ice were as important a household item as shelter, food or clothing. Ice was cut and drawn from lakes.  Then the ice plants were developed where brine tanks were built to imitate and mass produce what had been natural and labor intensive.

 

ICE was a publication that had been started by a Mr. Kerr in 1906 to network the hard-working ice producers. Soon after, Mr. John Yopp met and struck a deal with Mr. Kerr to buy the 'paper' from him. John Yopp was an entrepreneur at the beginning of the 1900's . He saw a need to formalize and support labor intensive industries, and make an effort to give them the respect and livliehood they deserved. He changed the name to REFRIGERATION, in an attempt to broaden the market for the ice producer. The home refrigerator was in the developing stages and John Yopp wanted to co-op his REFRIGERATION Magazine with the new frontier that the home refrigeration systems appeared to offer.

 

Amazingly enough however, the ice producers resisted this idea. They collectively protested, telling Mr. Yopp that he was way out of bounds in the direction of REFRIGERATION. “Ice boxes are a fad,” they said. “They will break down, spoil food, make people sick, and our reputations will be ruined forever.” So, reluctantly, REFRIGERATION Magazine stayed true to the ice man, and the story of the home refrigerator is one that everyone knows.

 

Focusing on other markets is a double edged sword. While you want to be true to your roots, and stay focused on what you do best, sometimes not persuing what is obviously a sea change in technology can wither your industry.

 

REFRIGERATION Magazine has stayed true to its roots. We publish news and trends specific to the packaged ice industry. We are the only family-owned publication still serving the industry today, and if history has its say, we always will be.

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REFRIGERATION Magazine™ has evolved from its 1906 roots as a publication for home-delivered block ice for food preservation and today serves the modern packaged ice industry, a $1.5 billion retail industry. Today, the magazine reaches more than 1,500 packaged ice plants across the U.S. and internationally, most of which operate a large scale refrigeration plant as well as refrigerated truck fleet.