Business View Magazine | April/May 2022

122 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 Providing our customers with a long lasting, beneficial insulation product that will bring warmth in the winter and cooling in the summer, and at the same time, save money. www.innovativefoamsolutions.com Trustworthy. Experienced. Professional. 228 Paulson Road, River Falls, WI 54022 | 715-821-8165 houses or RVs. A sizeable percentage of buyers are new customers, coming from all ages and demographics. While sales have been strong, the increase in demand pushed lead times back to around eight months, as the company cranked out products – 80 percent of which are customized from its core models. Lead times have remained long, since materials have become harder to get and more expensive with inflationary pressures mounting in 2021-22. When asked about current challenges for the company, Drexler reports, “Our biggest challenge is keeping up with pricing changes. The price of raw materials increases daily. Rising costs of steel and lumber are the biggest issues since those are the two main materials used to build Ice Castle’s products.” The much sought-after units offered by Ice Castle Fish Houses range from $9,000 to $60,000 retail but that price is dependent on the types of custom amenities desired by the customers. Some of the more popular options include a washer and dryer, stainless steel appliances, using multiple slide-outs for convenience, and creating more headroom and cabinet space inside the unit. All the models have the capacity to add more height when needed. A 35,000 BTU furnace is standard with most Ice Castle houses and RVs. Customers are willing to spend money on these units because they truly will live in them for weeks, months, or more at a time. Many customers will travel to campsites around the country during all months of the year. Two of the more popular models include Ice Castle’s 8 x 17’ crank down and its 8 x 21’ hydraulic chassis option. All houses are towable by half-ton or above pickups. Drexel notes, “We have customers who will rent space at a campsite or a camping resort in the summer and then will wait there for the ice to come in the winter.”