One Cool Customer
Texas ice maker sees business boom with new pipeline construction
Napoleon once famously said that an army marches on its stomach.
In the pipeline construction industry, crews run on water. Especially in Southeast Texas, and especially in deepest summer, hydration is a crucial safety matter. Crews are constantly encouraged to stay hydrated and to keep ahead of the game by drinking water before they’re thirsty.
And all that water goes down better when it’s cold.
That isn’t news to Jeremy Kunk, owner of Read Ice Company in Kountze, Texas, 25 miles northwest of Beaumont.
“The ice business is a lot like farming. We’re pretty much dependent on the weather. The hotter it is, the more we sell,” Kunk said. “Oh, yeah. The hotter, the better.”
Kunk’s company supplied more than 30,000 pounds of ice each week to TransCanada and its subcontractors on the last 113 miles of the overall 485-mile Gulf Coast Pipeline project while under construction in Texas and Oklahoma. The pipeline project is now almost 90 per cent complete and expected to begin operation later this year.
Read more on our blog.
