Billion-Dollar Industry That’s Keeping Your Beer Cold

For someone whose office has a view of a carnival, Lonny Warner is decidedly unwhimsical. The CEO of Reddy Ice, the largest producer of packaged ice in North America, Warner is tall and broad in slacks and a blue polo emblazoned with a white company logo. He wears a silver-chain necklace and bracelet and has close-cropped hair and condensed facial features. The large windows of his office in Reddy’s Dallas headquarters overlook Interstate 635. Beyond the freeway, on the site of the former Valley View Mall, is the carnival, looking eerie and apocalyptic in slumber. One Friday morning in April, Warner stands at the windows, studying it. “That’s new,” he observes, pointing to a spire rising two stories above the other structures. He takes a seat in one of two blue accent chairs, first pressing his arms to his sides, his hands hidden in the seat cushion, and then placing them on the chair’s rigid armrests.