machine owner spotlight
Bill Holt
Wilson, Oklahoma
Bill has been working in the oil pipelines for the past few decades. A few years ago Bill’s grandson brought up the idea of purchasing an ice vending machine. Later, after purchasing a home with a neighboring vacant lot, Bill saw the opportunity to place a Kooler Ice machine and make an additional revenue stream from his new property.
PRODUCTS OWNED
“My name is Bill Holt. I was raised in Wilson, Oklahoma. I’ve been in the oil business for around 38 years, before that I worked for the post office for about six years. But after the post office, like I said, I was in the oil business and that’s where I’ve been most of my life. I have two step-children and 11 grandchildren. And one day my grandson was talking to me about an ice machine that he was very interested in getting one for himself, but being so young he didn’t have the money to get into it or the space to put it on. So two years later a piece of property came open when we bought it, and it had a vacant lot detached to it. So that’s when I got back into thinking about getting this ice machine and I asked him could I steal his idea off of him and he said sure.
And so me and my wife got to looking at Kooler Ice, and so I’ve done research on it and as soon as I talked to him for about 30 minutes, I wrote him a check for a down payment on an 810 model. We got it delivered two months afterwards, that was in May of 2016 that I set it up for service. Whenever I first get it, the business was really good on it, but this second summer I’ve only had the machine for 14 months, and this is the second summer I’ve had it. And it’s got out to the surrounding towns around Wilson, which are about the same size as Wilson or a little smaller, and that’s brought people in from other towns and that’s really helped my sales. But as far as going out of my way advertising it, it advertises itself.
The one thing that I really like about the machine is the Ice Talk. Because I can look at it anytime I want to on my cell phone or my computer at home. The ease of maintaining it what I like about it, but Kooler Ice has helped me get through the learning curve of it, of how to take care of it, how to maximize getting the ice out of it. And that’s what I like about it, is Kooler Ice has really helped me to get started in this, and anytime I need help I can call Tommy down in Byron and they all help me, even Donnie in Cleveland, Texas helps me with it. And that’s what I liked about it, is the service after the sales, it’s been real good for me.
The one piece of advice I would give to somebody that’s looking into getting into the ice business, is the location though. You got to have this location, other people in their testimonial say the same time. But that is it, it’s location. Another thing is to size your machine for the size of town or population that you’re going to be servicing. And that’s another reason why Kooler Ice attracted me, is because of the different size models of ice machines that they got. So I’m very glad I went with Kooler Ice, I believe they have a better product than anybody else. I’ve been very happy with my machine, like I said, it’s making us money and it’s paying expenses and we have a little money leftover. So Kooler Ice is the way to go, I believe.”
WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY
