The Iceman Cometh

A career in the bagged ice business is not what Fred Carlson had envisioned for his future. But while he was pursuing an MBA at Tech, a pretty cool business opportunity came his way.

Carlson, CE 01, MBA 04, now is the chief operating officer of Ice House USA, which owns and operates ice-vending kiosks across the country. Unlike the ice coolers often found outside gas stations, Ice House’s automated machines produce, bag and vend ice 24 hours a day. And by eliminating much of the manpower in the traditional bagged ice trade, Ice House is able to offer its product at about half the price of most retail stores.

Carlson teamed up with his father, Doug Cone, CE 50, and a friend to fund the machine’s inventors, a couple of farmers in south Georgia. As part of an entrepreneurial finance class at Tech, Carlson and some classmates later developed a business plan for the automated ice-vending kiosks as an entry for a competition. They won second place.

Georgia Tech’s Economic Development Institute also played a part in Ice House USA’s birth, sending consulting engineers to the company’s manufacturer to help streamline operations.

Ice House USA was founded in December 2003, and its first unit was in operation two months later. Carlson moved to Ocala, Fla., to run the business after earning his MBA.

Now, Ice House units can be found at 14 spots on Florida’s west coast and at about 1,400 locations throughout the country. The company has just five employees. It hires independent contractors, who visit machines in their areas once a day to clean them, add bags and make sure they’re running properly.

Carlson credits much of his business success to his undergraduate involvement in the Georgia Tech Student Foundation, which invests in the stock market and raises money to award grants to student organizations. It was in various roles with the foundation that he picked up negotiation and public speaking skills and learned about “the importance of giving back, not just to Tech and not just monetarily.”

Giving back to Tech is something Carlson is very passionate about. Now living in his native Tampa, he is a member of the Suncoast Georgia Tech Club, a top-tier Alumni club for which he currently serves as the young alumni representative.

Carlson wants young alumni to realize that staying connected to Tech can mean performing volunteer work, networking with fellow grads or just having fun. In addition to student send-off picnics, events with guest speakers and a golf tournament to raise money for its scholarship fund, the Suncoast club hosts game-watching parties and monthly happy hours to bring together the more than 1,400 alumni living in the Tampa area.

But it’s interviewing club scholarship candidates and meeting prospective Tech students through local college fairs that Carlson finds most rewarding.

“Getting to see the newest talent going into Tech,” he said, “that just always reinforces how great Tech is. They’re attracting these kids who are 20 times better than we were.”

He sees some of those talented kids during his yearly pilgrimages to campus for Homecoming. This past year, he and his wife, Marie, brought along daughter Lyndsey, then not yet a year old, to participate in the first-ever stroller division of the Ramblin’ Wreck Parade.

“She goes to every game watching and every Alumni club function we have,” Carlson said. “She’s always wearing Tech gear. She has a little baby Buzz. They’re inseparable.”