EPIA | Managing Director’s Report – June 2019

Bilbao Convention 7-10 October 2019

We are getting ready to present some innovative ideas for our next convention in Bilbao, Spain. As the official association for packaged ice in Europe, the EPIA has now been serving ice producers, ice equipment manufacturers, and packaged ice supplies producers for over ten years. Our mission has not wavered since those early days but has been crystallized and focused to provide the most positive face for the ice industry in Europe. As we move further into our second decade of existence we must adjust to the needs of our industry and our members. In order to do so, we have implemented guidelines designed to portray our members in the most positive light. Among the many things, we do as an association includes keeping aware of and informing all our members of the changes that affect our industry. One of the most rapidly approaching impending changes facing our members today is the public outcry to reduce the dependence on single-use plastics such as bags. Two years ago we discussed this topic in Wroclaw and again last year in Venice. Your Board of Directors has been tracking how this will affect our members today and in the very near future. Keeping aware of these issues that have the potential to greatly affect how we conduct our business in this industry is important to prepare each of us to be stronger than our competitors in our marketplace. As we go forward into the future we must hold ourselves out as the example of quality and be thought of as the “gold standard” for packaged ice and be better prepared than others who might wish to compete in our industry.

In keeping with this desire to be known universally as the gold standard in the packaged ice industry, your BoD has implemented an initiative to define more precisely what the EPIA’s goal should be:

• How the EPIA desires to be seen by the community;
• What is desired by our members to enhance the reputation of our members; and
• How to promote customer recognition as trusting EPIA to provide credibility to our tag line “Ice You Can Trust.”

What better place to present this defined goal than in Bilbao. The Basque government committed to over €160 Million to commission Frank Gehry to design and build this exquisite piece of art. In 1991 Frank Gehry completed the design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, then built it over five years and opened it in 1997 to world acclaim from his peers and the world. Upon completion, it was a spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone and was hailed as the most important building of its time. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao has been called the “Miracle in Bilbao.”

Just as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, we want the EPIA to be thought of in the superlative and as such, the most influential industry association for packaged ice producers. To do this we must have the same devotion to vision as Frank Gehry had in creating the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In order to help set our goals for the EPIA going forward, our convention attendees will be given a personal guided tour through this awe-inspiring museum. With this inspiration of imagination and excellence, we hope to have the membership all agree with a unified strategy for attaining an agreed upon goal as the EPIA continues to shape the packaged ice industry in Europe.

As a teaser to excite your anticipation for the 2019 EPIA convention, Bilbao is located in the traditional Basque area of Spain, as such we will enjoy traditional Basque cuisine which is known to include local meats and fish grilled over hot coals, marmitako and lamb stews, cod, Tolosa bean dishes, paprikas from Lekeitio, Idiazabal sheep’s cheese, txakoli sparkling wine, and Basque cider. And let’s not forget pintxos or Basque tapas. We also plan to have a very special EPIA soup of the day prepared during the first evening cocktail party in preparation for your personal excursion into town for your first evening meal on your own. We have a picture of the menu item to show you at this time and feel you will enjoy the starter.