Flux Power: Tell us about Arctic Glacier.
Christian Sanchez: We manufacture and distribute packaged ice. As a company, we distribute to over 75,000 retail customers, including grocery stores, markets, and construction companies using ice. From our facility here in Oceanside, CA we distribute to over 1,100 customers.
FP: What are you responsible for?
CS: As the plant manager of the Oceanside location, I oversee facility operations, everything from manufacturing to distribution and sales of ice to customers. We run 12 - 15 delivery routes. We produce 350 tons of ice every day from this location.
FP: Since you're in Southern California, do the wildfires impact your business at all?
CS: Definitely. This year, we had a lot of power outages, many of them were planned by the power companies to reduce fire risk during strong winds and high heat. A lot of homes were affected.
One of the things they really needed to keep their food and products cold was ice. And this produced a huge spike in our business, similar to other seasonal spikes in the summer and during holidays. We do what we can to help out the Red Cross and Fire Department as well.
FP: What role to forklifts and pallet jacks play in the packaged ice industry?
CS: Forklifts and pallet jacks are among the top 5 important things in our ice distribution and manufacturing business. We need our equipment to work in order to be able to stack our products, to load our trucks and deliver to our customers. Forklifts play a tremendous role in our business.
FP: Thinking back to before you used lithium-ion in your lift equipment, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
CS: One of our biggest challenges, we always had batteries going out. And we always had to deal with downtime on our equipment. Also, because we're constantly going in and out of hot and cold environments, some traditional batteries just wouldn't work well in those conditions.
FP: Now that you've switched to Flux Power what has been your experience?
CS: Since we switched to Flux Power (lithium-ion forklift batteries) we've had literally no maintenance issues and our downtime is minimal. If there is downtime, it's definitely not with the batteries; it's something else on the forklift.
"It's a simple product to use and it works great."
FP: How did you get started with Flux Power batteries?
CS: We got started after being approached by a Flux Power Sales Rep. We tried one out - and then just started adding more, then added them to our bigger equipment - and it's been working out great.
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