The launch of the sphere ice maker by HOSHIZAKI AMERICA INC. (Hoshizaki America), a subsidiary of Hoshizaki Corporation, took place in July 2020. The “sphere” name refers to the golf-ball shaped sphere ice and with less surface area than square ice cubes, there is minimal dilution of the beverage, making it ideal for an alcoholic drink “on-the-rocks”. While sphere ice is typically purchased from an ice making factory or made by hand carving spherical shapes from a large block of ice, this newly introduced ice maker can automatically produce approximately 500 ice spheres a day with no manual work required, so it provides end users with more sanitary and manpower savings ways. To address these increasing needs in the drink service, this product aims to meet the demands of customers in a wide variety of industries, including not just food service, but also accommodations and entertainment industries.
In addition, this product won a 2020 Kitchen Innovations Award, which is sponsored by the US National Restaurant Association. This award is presented to products recognized for significant contributions in areas such as automation, efficiency, safety improvements, sustainability, waste solutions, and more. Following the award won two years ago for the new ice making structure installed in the KM-edge ice maker series and the award won last year for the new type of dispenser “MODwater”, Hoshizaki has now won awards for three consecutive years.
The Hoshizaki America ice make manufacturing plant in Peachtree City, Georgia was completed in 1986, while the refrigerator manufacturing plant in Griffin, Georgia began operation in 2001. While currently holding the top share of the US ice maker market, to pursue further growth in the US market, Hoshizaki continues to strategically expand product portfolio to fulfill the variety of market demands.
