GLOBEANDMAIL.COM January 2007

Posted AT 5:59 PM EST ON 23/01/07
Frozen assets
Iceculture's custom-built ice bars turn
into cold, hard cash
IAN HARVEY
Globe and Mail Update
Halfway around the world, in the desert city of Dubai, customers are
anxiously awaiting the grand opening of a cool new restaurant. At
Chillout, set to open in early March, they will pay the equivalent of
$10 to don mitts, a toque and a parka to experience real Canadian ice.
They will sit on ice couches at an ice bar, surrounded by ice
sculptures and ice-bead curtains, all in a room built with ice pillars.
This isn't just any old frozen water, though. It's crystal-clear,
designer-quality ice created by Iceculture, a 20-year-old family
business based in Hensall, Ont., just outside London. At the
company's 32,000-square-foot factory, a team of 60 employees uses
chain saws, a pair of lathes and routers to build ready-to-assemble
bars that are shipped around the world. One of its biggest customers,
New Zealand-based Minus Five, has installed two ice lounges in
Australia, with two more scheduled.
A dancer sculpture that will sit in the Chill Out bar in Dubai
Another customer, Sharaf Group of UAE, will soon open Chillout, the first ice restaurant in Dubai. "And they've
got plans for eight more in places like Mumbai, Singapore and Malaysia, says Iceculture founder Julian Bayley.
Another company ordered an Iceculture lounge for the trendy Wharf district of Cape Town, South Africa. "It's
really a phenomenon."
One cool family: The Bayleys, from left to right: Heidi, Julian, Christine, Sam and Ann
Bayley, the family's 70-year-old patriarch, is a former journalist who got into catering after quitting Fleet Street.
When he discovered he had a knack for carving ice, he turned it into a business. Now Iceculture generates $5
million a year in revenue (up from just $100,000 a decade ago), 80% from overseas clients. "We're running around
the clock to catch up," says patriarch Julian Bayley. "But come February this will all come to a sudden stop. It's
the nature of the business it's somewhat seasonal."
For the rest of the year, Iceculture fills orders for ice blocks and sculptures (produced using a 3-D carving machine
it developed with a California company) , and sells ice-making machinery, often to tropical locales, where ice is
always in demand. It's also developing ice projectiles that NASA and Boeing will fire at the Space Shuttle and
aircraft to test the effects of ice falling loose during flight.
But ice bars are definitely the hottest part of Iceculture's business. Bayley's factory
cuts 300-pound blocks into a complete interior, custom designed to the supplied
interior specifications. In addition to the ice bar itself, there are walls, curtains,
tables, chairs, shelves, glasses and chandeliers, all of which are made from ice cut,
shaped, carved and then packed into refrigerated containers and sent to their
destination. A set-up team usually follows, and the interior is pieced together
inside a giant freezer. Another shipping container contains parkas, mitts and hats
complete with bar logo that are loaned to patrons to ward off the chill during their
visit.
People are willing to pay to freeze over their cocktails Minus 5 charges a $30
cover charge at its bar in Sydney, which draws more than 3,000 patrons a week.
The Ice Lounge in Cape Town's trendy Wharf district see 1,000 people a day.
"They walk in smiling, and they walk out smiling," says Bayley. "People stand
around and watch and talk about the ice experience. It really makes them feel
good."
A beaded curtain made of ice that will separate the cubicles in the Chill Out bar in Dubai
Iceculture also cranks out a temporary bar every two-and-a-half days at up
to $15,000 a pop for vodka maker Ketel One's promotional events. "It's a
unique approach to building brand awareness," says William Eldien, CEO
of Nolet Spirits, the family business that sells Ketel One. "It's a
personalized experience. Consumers order a cocktail and then watch as the
bartender pours it down the "ice luge" into their chilled glass. It generates
positive word-of-mouth about the brand."
The Bayleys' main competitive advantage is the ice itself. Iceculture
The Bayleys' main competitive advantage is the ice itself. Iceculture
clarifies Hensall municipal water through a reverse-osmosis process, then
freezes it, to create perfectly transparent raw material. The blocks are then
lathed, chipped, ripped and carved into whatever the customer wants
including the Vince Lombardi Superbowl trophy and a lifesized bust of
Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, that's destined
for Chill Out.
Bayley recently passed the torch or rather, the keys to the freezer to his
kids. He still handles R&D, and his wife, Ann, is in charge of admin. But
one daughter, Heidi, is Iceculture's general manager; the other, Christine, is
head of sales. Son Sam handles production and sales of 3-D ice sculptures.
Huge candles that adorn each Iceculture bar
The new management structure gives Bayley time to focus on other projects. His website, adviceinice.com, is a
popular hub for ice carvers worldwide. And he has developed technology and machinery that he sells to other
carvers. Among his customers is legendary Japanese chef and ice sculptor Mitsuo Shimizu, a Grand Master of the
art who dropped $350,000 on a lathe and router after spending a couple of days in Hensall. "Until then, he did
everything by hand," Bayley says. "But it was taking too long, and he had to remain competitive."
Bayley is also working on the ultimate ice cube or sphere, actually but is struggling
with the logistics on how to ship them to the markets where slow-melting ice is in
demand. "The spheres are cut to about 60 mm diameter which is perfect for a rock
glass," says Bayley. "They're made from our ice, which is harder than regular ice
and doesn't melt as fast. That's important when you're drinking Johnny Walker Blue
at $40 a shot. They pour the drink over the ice and the sphere sits on top of it. When
they drink it, the liquor flows around it. It's big in Japan."
He has even bigger plans, like a 10,000-square-foot refrigerated gallery in Hensall
to exhibit ice creations in a black-walled interior. "And I'd like to see, for example,
a traveling road show called Disney In Ice, as opposed to Disney On Ice," he says.
"With our technology, we can create an ice sculpture of any trademark character
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck to brand specifications, and then make it again and
again the same every time."
These massive pillars support Iceculture's bars
Bayley can't seem to get enough ice and in just a few days, people in Dubai will be feeling the chill.
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