Scotsman traces its origins back to 1921, when the Queen Stove Works was founded in Albert Lea, Minnesota. In 1950 the Queen Stove Works purchased the American Gas Machine company, a manufacturer of lanterns, ice chests, heaters and a single model commercial ice machine. The name “Scotsman” was used to market commercial ice machines from this point forward. In 1957 King-Seeley Corporation acquired the Queen Stove Works and in 1960 the business was merged with American Thermos Products Company.

By 1960 the company’s focus had shifted entirely to the manufacture of ice machines, then still a fairly new business.

In 1967 King-Seeley Thermos acquired Frimont S.p.A., a large Italian maker of commercial ice machines and began using the Scotsman name for the products produced by them. This immediately made Scotsman the largest selling ice machine brand in the world as Frimont products were sold in Europe, the Middle East and Asia- Pacific. In 1968 Household Finance Corporation (later known as Household International) absorbed King-Seeley Thermos, creating the Household Manufacturing subsidiary to house this new acquisition. Household Manufacturing added another Italian ice machine maker in 1985, Castel MAC, S.p.A., which also made commercial freezers, blast chillers, dough retarders and water coolers.

In 1989, Household International divested itself of Household Manufacturing including its Refrigeration products Group, headquarterd in Vernon Hills, Illinois and re-named Scotsman Industries, Inc. Simag, an Italian ice machine maker was purchased by Frimont in 1993, further consolidating Scotsman’s leadership position in the growing commercial ice machine market.

Scotsman Industries, Inc. was itself acquired in 1999 by Berisford plc which later came to be known as Enodis. Berisford plc included Mile High Manufacturing (Ice-O-Matic brand of commercial ice machines) located in Denver, Colorado and founded in 1952. The ice machine businesses of Scotsman Industries, Inc. and Berisford plc became known as the Enodis Global Ice Machine Business and was widely recognized as the largest manufacturer of commercial ice machines in the world.

In 2008, in conjunction with Manitowoc Inc’s acquisition of Enodis, Manitowoc agreed to sell the Enodis Ice Group as a condition of the US Department of Justice’s and the European Commission’s clearance of the Enodis acquisition. In May of 2009 the Enodis Ice Group was acquired by Warburg-Pincus and re-named Scotsman Industries, Inc.

With 6 manufacturing facilities, 10 major sales offices, 1,000 plus distributors, more than 5,000 service technicians and sales in over 100 countries; Scotsman Industries, Inc. remains the largest commercial ice machine company in the world.