Most companies fail in the first year. A scant few make it past five years. So, National Driller wants to congratulate International Construction Equipment as it celebrates a major milestone this month: 40 years in business. The company has manufactured pile driving and drilling equipment since 1974.
“Our engineers, machining crew and assembly teams hand build this equipment in Matthews, N.C.,” said CEO Christian Cunningham.
ICE calls itself “the world's one-stop foundation shop.” It manufactures and distributes vibratory drivers and extractors, diesel hammers, hydraulic hammers, drill tooling, limited-access drills and other equipment for deep foundations work.
The company also works as an active corporate citizen, pushing for infrastructure investment across the U.S. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers recognized ICE for 3 consecutive years with the group’s Pillar of Industry Award. The award is part of AEM’s “I Make America” campaign.
“We joined the ‘I Make America’ campaign when we learned the U.S. government was sending out job bids and not informing USA manufacturers, accepting international quotes without domestic competition,” said CFO Kurt Seufert. “It hurts not only ICE, a family-owned company, but also our local economy. We have been working on outreach ever since. However, because we are a small company, it is hard to get the attention to these issues by ourselves.”
ICE and AEM together advocate for increased spending on roads and bridges.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which issues a regular report card on the state of infrastructure, U.S. roads get a “D” grade and bridges get a “C+” grade. There’s a lot of room for improvement and companies like ICE provide the backbone for that work.
“Manufacturing machines built in America helps our local economy grow,” Seufert said. “We invest in our people as well. Many of our team members have been working with ICE for 20 years or more.”
So, if you work with ICE on a project or you buy from them, take the time to wish them a happy birthday.
“We are positive looking into the future and hope for another 40-years of building foundation equipment,” Cunningham said.
Stay safe out there, drillers.
