Over the past several months I have written several times about how Stern Pinball is growing tremendously, experiencing 15% to 20% growth annually since 2008. In response to this growth, Stern is in the process of moving to a new factory that is nearly 50% larger.
It's not just pinball that's growing, this morning I read an article about the arcade machine company ICE, manufacturer of such iconic games as Super Chexx, air hockey, pop-a-shot, skee ball-esque games and of course redemption games, has expanded its workforce by nearly 50% since the beginning of 2022. Specifically, ICE has over 115 new employees, giving the Company 240+ full-time and an additional 25 contingent employees.
ICE just attended its seventh industry trade show in the past three months and has a strong order book. Despite the high level of orders, the hiring wave has enabled ICE to reduce its manufacturing lead times back to two to six weeks across all product lines. Ice has been able to reduce its lead times on parts orders as well, Consumables Orders (Balls, Bulbs, Hardware, ETC) are now down to a wait of only two to three days, Orders with Critical Assemblies to two weeks and boards three weeks. ICE reported record parts sales in January 2023.
In addition to continued production of its traditional products, like Super Chexx (which now has the cool Pro version that contains a video screen) ICE is developing new products including Dodgeball, Shipwreck, NHL Air FX and Harlem Globetrotters. The company's new World Football Pro product will launch soon.
Below are several pictures of the ICE factory producing games, some of its new products at trade shows and the new "Ship Wreck" carnival-style ball rolling redemption game.
ICE LEAD TIME & WORKFORCE
