Growers Ice Company was established in 1936 in Salinas, California to service the fresh produce industry in the Salinas Valley. The original founders of Growers Ice, T.R. Merrill, Bruce Church, K.R. Nutting, and E.E. Harden, were instrumental in establishing Salinas as the “salad bowl” of the United States. The name “iceberg lettuce” was coined in the 1930’s when train cars full of lettuce were shipped cross country using ice produced at the Growers Ice facility.
Today, our 35-acre cold room facilities located in Salinas host 70 refrigerated loading bays, over 300,000 square feet of cold storage space, 40 pressure cooler tunnels, 7 vacuum tubes, 5 high volume ice injection stations, and an ice supply capacity of more than 2000 tons per day.
During the growing season over 200,000 cartons of produce are cooled and shipped from our facility daily and more than 30 million cartons are shipped annually.
In addition to our premier cooling facilities, Growers Ice has pioneered mobile refrigeration and icing technology and has a fleet of over 25 mobile ice and refrigeration trailers and 35 ice injectors that supply ice and refrigeration to growers across North America.