The New Ice Age: Creating Demand, Excitement and Success Marketing Frozen Water in a Box

Ice Caters announces manufacturing alliance with leading ice sculpture company and sale of equity to fund control of core automation technology. Ice Caters LLC has agreements in place to control exclusive automated production technology to further improve manufacturing quality and profitability of its core ice in a box products. Company has raised 2.06M in private equity funding to build brand, grow demand for new generation of packaged ice products.

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Ice Caters Founder Michael Shoer holds an "Ice and Easy" martini glass made entirely of ice

There is a huge untapped market for the ice ball and the functional packaged ice designs that the Ice Caters' Ice and Easy line offers,

Atlanta, GA (Vocus) January 4, 2010

Ice Caters LLC has announced agreements to merge manufacturing and marketing operations with the top ice carving company in the United States and to raise new capital to proceed with further development and acquisition of new automated ice manufacturing technologies.

The company today announced that its core product manufacturing would be relocated and run by Ice Occasions Las Vegas, the dominant manufacturer and provider of custom ice sculptures in the Las Vegas market, and the sales leading ice carving company in the United States. The move will create an alliance for growth by combining Ice Caters trademarked brands, digital marketing skill and established distribution network of Ice Caters with the manufacturing and ice engineering experitse of Ice Occasions Las Vegas.

Ice Caters LLC will focus on the marketing and distribution of products, and the ownership of trademarks, technology and customer data.

Ice Occasions of Las Vegas will integrate the manufacturing technology and packaging owned by Ice Caters into its existing high volume custom ice carving operations and centrally manage for efficiency and quality assurance and help build out a nationwide network of the best regional service providers.

Ice Caters LLC, which has already raised $2.06M in first and second round private equity funding, has previously announced its intention to raise additional capital. The company has reaffirmed its intention remains to invest in additional exclusive automated production technology to further improve manufacturing quality and profitability of its core ice in a box products, and to build up its sales and marketing support and to offer custom ice design and full service installations in selected high volume markets.

“I initially saw the opportunity to build a brand and a line of products to replace the need for the local ice carver, but I see now that the biggest—and highest volume—major venue accounts value the concept of our Ice and Easy® product, but also have the need for important custom projects with quality and turnkey service they can depend on,” said Michael Shoer, the former TV News Executive turned entrepreneur who founded the company.

Ice Caters has introduced a revolutionary line of ice products under the brand Ice and Easy® that are part ice sculpture and part consumable ice. Marketed directly to food and beverage professionals in the hotel, restaurant, catering and beverage marketing industries, the company is perhaps best known for creating demand for a new trend in cocktail ice.

“The Ice Ball is a simple, elegant clear sphere of ice that ignites the cocktail experience,” said Shoer. Ice Caters products also include iceware martini glasses, champagne buckets, and serving bowls—everything made out of pure, consumable ice and delivered in a space age insulated case along with its own self contained melt absorption system.

“There is a huge untapped market for the ice ball and the functional packaged ice designs that the Ice Caters’ Ice and Easy line offers, “said Ryan McDougall, Owner of Ice Occasions Las Vegas. “Some of our biggest custom clients also are big customers for the Ice Caters product line. Bringing it all together makes perfect sense to grow together.”

Ice Occasions Las Vegas (http://www.icevegas.com) has achieved industry recognition for custom ice projects throughout the United States and predominantly in Las Vegas as well as Southern California. Ice Occasions Las Vegas has achieved consistent profitability and growth throughout its 12-year business history, with annual sales exceeding $1M over each of the past 5 years.

Ice Caters LLC (http://www.icecaters.com and http://www.iceandeasy.com)] was founded in 2004, and distributes its products directly to commercial customers and local ice distributors from Reddy Ice and Preferred Freezer Services warehouses in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Miami and New Jersey. The company's brands and trademarks include: Ice and Easy®, Ice Caters®, Brand ICE™, BIG Event Network™, Ice ONE Source™ and related web properties. The founder of Ice Caters is also one of the principles leading Creative Word and Image, Inc.-- a marketing communications content company, and previously founded and operated one of the leading broadcast news syndication companies in the United States, NewsProNet.

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