Holiday Ice Company of Indianola

ROBERT MCFARLAND, JR.

Delta Business Journal

There is a play currently on Broadway called "The Iceman Cometh". If this is true, then his source must be a company in Indianola called Holiday Ice a bag ice supplier. Holiday Ice produces a whopping 48 tons of ice each day in order to keep many Deltan’s cool on a hot summer day.

"My family was in the ice business back in the late sixties and early seventies," says owner Jimmy Wood of Boyle, whose family has been in the amusement business for many years that was founded by his father who died last year, Jackie T. Wood. "In 1991 my father and I were looking for other business opportunities and were even considering getting back into the ice business when a friend in Vicksburg told us about an ice business in Indianola that was for sale."

One week later, Wood and his father were in Indianola inspecting their new business.

"We purchased the business and increased the existing 90 accounts that very day," says Wood. "In addition to the 90 accounts, the business then had 110 merchandisers, and a 12 ton a day ice-making capacity."

The first year, Wood worked 80 to 100 hours a week in order to increase the business and sold so much ice that he had to drive to Vicksburg three days a week to purchase additional ice. Last year, Holiday Ice underwent an expansion allowing the company to keep up with the demand.

The company’s peek time is from May 1 to September 1. However, the company is very busy all year long and Wood’s customers are convenience stores, mom and pop service stations, grocery stores, and some Walmart stores.

Holiday Ice’s service area is a 60 mile radius of Indianola.

Six years ago, Wood hired, Stan Smith, an old high school friend to manage the operation.

"My background is in aviation and of course this is very different from that," laughs Smith. "Most people think that all that goes with having to make ice is just to freeze water. There is far more to it than that and people would be very surprised to see what it really takes to make filtered quality ice."