A Brief History

The Coolit Ice Company started business from premises in Khyber Pass Road in 1972. In 1977 the plant was relocated to its present site at 115 Harris Road, East Tamaki.

In 1983 the plant underwent its first major upgrade and with this upgrade, automation of the ice manufacturing/handling and bagging took its first leap forward. Constant & ongoing upgrades sees the Harris Road Plant as being the largest Packaged Ice Plant in New Zealand using totally automated ice handling and bagging equipment. The plant has always been the largest plants in New Zealand.

Since 1989/90 this increase in demand has been met with productive capacity. The most up-to-date ice machine from Vogt in USA produces enough ice for 14,000 standard 3.5kg bags in a 24-hour period.

In 2002 Coolit Ice installed new technology that prints the date/hour/ minutes/ seconds and a unique number onto every bag of ice that was on the conveyor belt so each bag could be traced back to its time of manufacture. Also implemented was scanning equipment and computers whose sole purpose is to track a bag of ice from time of manufacture to the point of sale. With the implementation of this technology, our Food Safe Standard is unrivalled by our competitors through: -

1. Our willingness to invest in equipment to ensure our Food Safe Programme is lawful
2. Our ability to achieve Accreditation from AgriQuality’s Food Safety Programme.

The Coolit Ice Company has always had a policy of constant upgrades of our manufacturing and storage facilities. The plant is now the largest and the most up-to-date in New Zealand.

Storage facilities have been maintained at Harris Road with the cold store having capacity for 50,000 bags as reserve stock to cover contingencies and it is also used for storing pallets of packaged ice. Pallet loads of Packaged Ice are vital for the quick turn around of delivery vehicles in peak times. A new cold store has been built that adds another extra 10,000 bags to the total.

Over the years our Competitors have accepted Coolit’s position in the ice industry that we are New Zealand’s Leading Ice Manufacturer. At Christmas (peak) time on many occasions Coolit Ice has assisted other Ice Manufacturers with stock because their stocks have been depleted. In recent years ice has been freighted as far as Christchurch from Auckland. During the Christmas period many local competitors have appreciated that Coolit Ice has been in a position to help them supply ice to their own customers.

Coolit has built a reputation with the promise that “we never run out of Ice”. Forward planning and a significant and continuing investment in plant/ equipment have ensured that this promise has been able to be kept.

As part of our commitment, Coolit ice feel that Food Safety is a high priority issue & that product quality is of utmost importance. Reliability and experience comes with Coolit Ice staff who know the Ice business and it is you the Customer, who will benefit.