With record high temperatures in the Las Vegas Valley during the month of July, sales indicate the area's largest manufacturer and distributor of packaged ice played a larger role in helping Las Vegans beat the heat this summer.

"It's been a very big summer," said Craig Call, plant manager of the Reddy Ice Inc. plant in Las Vegas. "I've been in the ice business since 1971 and I've never seen a summer like this. We set all those heat records -- that all affects our business."

He added that steady population gains in Southern Nevada also contributed to increases in sales.

The company supplies ice to local grocery stores such as Vons and Albertson's, convenience stores including 7-Eleven and to a lesser degree hotels and restaurants, when they can't handle the demand with their own ice makers.

As on-site ice makers at hotels and restaurants broke down this summer because of increased demands, Reddy Ice saw more orders for packaged ice, Call said.

Lesley Pittman, a spokeswoman for Station Casinos, said earlier this summer that the company's properties produce their own ice but occasionally purchase from Reddy Ice. Rob Stillwell, a Boyd Gaming Corp. spokesman, said his company also produces its own ice.

Call said that July 4th is usually the busiest time of the year for the ice industry but that hot temperatures kept demand for packaged ice high for the rest of the month.

"We had that heat wave that hit after the Fourth of July," Call said. "July was like one big holiday weekend."

He said the plant experienced a 41 percent increase in sales in July compared with the previous July, and in August the plant sold 25 percent to 30 percent more ice than it did the previous August.

On peak days the company sells between 600,000 to more than 1 million pounds of ice, Call said. The company's biggest-selling months are in July and August, while the slowest months are in January and in February.

The company sells ice in packages of 10, 20 and 40 pounds and the minimum order the company will accept is 400 pounds, which costs $55, Call said. He added that one day in July the plant had 500 orders of ice in addition to the 250 orders the company does every day.

Call said Reddy Ice, which normally employs between 65 to 70 workers during the year, hired more than 30 temporary workers this summer, most of whom were drivers.

Jane McEwen, executive director of the International Packaged Ice Association, said that industrywide, 80 percent of all packaged ice is sold between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

"We, of course, would like to even that trend out," she said. "As we promote ice more for consumption we hope in the future that 80 percent will start to even out over the months," she said.

The Las Vegas Reddy Ice plant serves Clark County, but the company, which is based in Dallas, distributes ice in 31 states. The Las Vegas plant also offers cold storage space and has an on-site ice sculptor available for special orders.

Reddy Ice first began operating in Las Vegas in the 1970s; that decade it bought a local competitor, Polar Ice. In the mid-1990s, Reddy Ice merged with a large company, Packaged Ice, and in 1999 it bought Mr. Ice, a business with local ties.

Call said as a result of the deals, the packaged ice industry has become much more consolidated. In addition to playing a role in the consolidation of the industry, the company completed an initial public offering last month.

"We've seen the big companies roll everything up," Call said. "The ice industry was mostly mom and pops."

McEwen echoed his comments.

"Our industry has consolidated a great deal, just like many industries," McEwen said. "Where there used to be an ice plant in every town across America we have single, much larger plants across America. A lot of the mom and pop businesses have been bought out so the plants have gotten fewer and much larger."

Alana Roberts covers courts and labor relations for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached by e-mail at alanar@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4059.