Mountain Ice: Made and Sourced in the United States

Those of you who know Mountain Ice well probably also know our creator, Martin Zarnock Jr., is Vice President of the family-owned Mountainside Medical Equipment, a medical supply company. And being in the medical supply business for 18 years has taught us a lot about the difficulties of logistics and distribution. Ours is a business that requires building relationships with many different manufacturers and distributors, and it's made us aware how complicated and vulnerable the medical supply chain is. It's a lesson that the coronavirus pandemic is teaching us all right now.

COVID-19, the strain of coronavirus currently spreading around the world, has proven a major challenge to manufacturing and shipping across every industry. It's estimated that the supply chains for 75% of American companies have been disrupted by the virus. Even manufacturing located in the United States may have trouble sourcing parts or ingredients from outside the country, and delays on goods are expected to be common.

Much of our manufacturing, even for medical supplies, occurs overseas or involves materials sourced from other nations. This creates an intricate network of shipping that becomes a logistical nightmare when an event breaks a single link in this chain. When Hurricane Maria happened in 2017, Puerto Rican medical manufacturing was delayed for months, causing shortages in vital supplies like bacteriostatic water that our company felt acutely. Around 72% of all manufacturers that supply U.S. pharmaceutical companies are located outside the United States, including 13% in China. Chinese manufacturing, responsible for many goods in America, has unsurprisingly been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak:

• Chinese manufacturers report operating at 50% capacity with 56% regular staff.
• 62 percent of businesses surveyed by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) expect delays receiving goods from China.
• 53 percent of these businesses reported difficulty getting supply chain information from China.
• 48 percent of these businesses have had delays moving goods within China.
• 46 percent of these businesses have had delays loading goods at Chinese ports.

What Does This Mean for Mountain Ice?

While the disease appears to have originated in China, manufacturing and distribution have been affected everywhere, and so has consumer behavior. You've seen this if you've attempted to buy face masks or hand sanitizer recently, and even basic goods like food and toilet paper. People are stocking up, and until the outbreak is under control, this is going to continue.

We're proud to say, however, that Mountain Ice is unlikely to run out of stock anytime soon! Our product is produced and packaged in the United States, as well as made from ingredients sourced in the U.S. Our company has always been proud of our roots here in Central New York and we believe in keeping our business as local as possible. With that in mind, Mountain Ice is packaged onsite here at a facility we built right next to the Mountainside Medical Equipment offices!

You can rely on Mountain Ice. We take our mission to improve the daily lives of chronic pain patients seriously, and part of living up to that responsibility is making sure our product is widely and consistently available. Arthritis and neuropathy persist in the absence of treatment, but Mountain Ice is committed to being available when you need it most.