Life is full of opportunities. After a career in corporate life, I wanted the American Dream and started and operated for 25 years two successful businesses, an event production company and summer day camp. Our catering division often prepared and served food for up to 8,000 guests and temporary refrigeration was always at a premium. We now have a warehouse of equipment to keep food cold. Walk-in refers and freezers, reach-ins, under-counter refrigeration, 100’s of cambros, coolers, multiple ice machines, packed ice, dry ice, etc. and we always seemed to work hard at keeping food cold and safe. I always felt there had to be a better way.
Over the last 15 years we tried many ways to meet the cold storage seasonal demands for our large events. Our staff move fast, work hard and for long hours and it’s always been my goal to make our workflow more efficient. Food service staff are some the hardest workers and every new piece of equipment or change in a procedure is designed to make the job easier and more efficient. Work smarter, not harder, is our motto.
We tried refrigerated delivery truck rentals to meet our seasonal demands, but it was obvious that trucks were not the ideal solution. Here is a recent in-depth article I wrote, “Trailer vs. Truck, The New Cold War”, explaining why refrigerated trucks are not the solution.
Since trucks were not the answer we decided to buy two refrigerated trailers. I designed and ordered two custom units and overall, my first version of a portable refer/freezer was very good. Although my obsession with the details soon had me learning Sketchup to design a better refrigerator trailer for the future. And of course, I did.
Cold Hard Cash
A good play often has 3 acts, and a good career can too. For my 3rd career act, I decided to launch Keep It Cold LLC. My 3rd act is like any great story building to a great finale. From my early beginnings in the corporate world, to a successful entrepreneur in the event production and catering world, and now I am challenging myself in new ways. This third act is really a test of my business skills and resolve. People around me keep asking why I don’t retire given my previous successes. But I wanted a 3rd act. Not only to earn some cold cash, but a final act that included manufacturing in the United States, building a strong national brand, scaling a business beyond one city, and ultimately changing the lives of our team and dealers through great opportunities.
Little did I know when I started this 3rd act in January 2020 there would be huge unforeseen challenges filled with lockdowns and supply chain issues and earning cold cash changed to earning cold hard cash.
We all know what happened March 13, 2020. Our other businesses, corporate event production and summer day camp were at ground zero for the covid shutdown. We went from 300 employees to 18 in a matter of months. And of course, just as we were preparing to launch Keep It Cold when our world shut down.
At that point my team running our other companies did everything to pivot to new business opportunities based on limited opportunities. The best thing that happened was we opened a BBQ pop-up and we field tested our new Keep It Cold refrigerator/freezer trailers during the long hot summer of 2020.
Our Keep It Cold trailers were exceptional at BernieQue’s. We served thousands of customers and our staff was in and out of the Keep It Cold temporary refrigeration constantly. We were so busy we needed two portable refer trailers. After that first summer with the 105° heat, dusty parking lot and heavy use I knew that our units could really Keep It Cold under the toughest conditions.
We are also proud of the summer 2020 because we were selected by Corpus Christi vaccine super site to help with refrigeration of the Maderna vaccine.
This year we have realized our goal of helping so many businesses meet their increased demand as we came out of covid. Our customers are happy to rent our efficient and reliable refrigerator trailers and our customer support in meeting their tight schedules and refrigerator and freezer needs.
We have been overwhelmed seeing businesses bounce back after the lockdown. So many wonderful customers, so many interesting and successful businesses and so many uses for our refrigerated trailers we never imagined.
“My view of the future – Keep It Cold everywhere”
“Our resident tech lover building new ways to Keep It Cold”
“Karen is known for her cold hands and warm heart”
“Alana and Rick never give their customers a cold shoulder”
