A circular thread about ice. I first became intrigued when a colleague mentioned premium ice cubes. The packaging says they last longer than regular ice cubes.

He said no-one would pay money for ice when they could get it out of their fridge door. Valid point.

So I looked and there they were.£1 a kilo versus 50p a kilo. Supplier is J Marr & Son. No, not that J Marr. I checked.

Not bad profits. Turnover of parent company was £34.7m; operating profit was £3.0m.

Anyway the biggest supplier of ice in the USA is Reddy Ice. In 2012, Walmart was 14% of sales. Since gone private.

Didn’t realise ice was so important. Reddy Ice shares heritage with 7-Eleven - both come from the 1927 formation of the Southland Ice Company

The formation of 7-Eleven was almost a distraction from the business of selling ice. Especially when an entrepreneur introduced the concept of a totem pole in front of every store

Southland introduced 7-Eleven to the UK. They traded for a while then sold all their stores to Budgens. 57 stores. 1998. Think they rebranded as B2.

Older viewers will remember Circle K from the same era.

When I first started out as an analyst Budgens gave out the best freebies. Two bottles of wine. And some pastries.

I never got to go to the Electronics Boutique results. They gave out consoles. And games.