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![\"Saipan](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/SaipanIce30AnniversaryImage.jpg\")
<\/a>\nThis reliable service\u2014one that is always ready for the community\u2014is one that Saipan Ice has always striven to give Saipan in the last 30 years and beyond.<\/p>\n
The company just marked three decades in the business last Sept. 5 but, instead of a glamorous celebration to highlight this very significant milestone, Saipan Ice opted for a quiet employee honorarium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were too busy to close for a celebration. We have to help the community. It\u2019s the customers first,\u201d Morishige said.<\/p>\n
Since being established in the CNMI, Saipan Ice continues to provide \u201cthe best drinking water possible\u201d through a process that they\u2019ve refined over the decades.<\/p>\n
Their purification process starts with their deep protected well and rain water. It is disinfected as source water and goes through a series of purifications such as a charcoal and multi-media filtration process, and from there through their reverse osmosis system. The water then goes through UV Light purification as double disinfection and as a final step immediately before being bottled.<\/p>\n
Saipan Ice is also the only company on island that makes its own water bottles on site, while the bottling process itself is entirely automated. They also make their own labels and can make customized ones for anniversaries, birthdays, various celebrations, and corporate affairs.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s onsite chemist also performs daily water testing such as daily coliform testing, bacteria testing, chlorine residual testing, total dissolved solids (TDS) testing and taste\/smell testing.<\/p>\n
Although some would say it\u2019s just water, there is a specific taste that immediately tells you the quality of the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should taste clean and pure. It shouldn\u2019t have a long aftertaste. It shouldn\u2019t be salty,\u201d Morishige said.<\/p>\n
Saipan Ice is also certified by the U.S. military and all their products are FDA-registered.<\/p>\n
Marketing director Regina Morishige said their quality standards are the primary driver of their business model\u2014standards first before anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the quality standards that we\u2019ve always kept and the mission to provide Saipan with the best drinking water possible is what has kept Saipan Ice going for the past 30 years and will continue to keep it going beyond that. With that mission, we\u2019re always looking at ways to improve and make sure quality is at the highest level possible at all times,\u201d Regina Morishige said.<\/p>\n
Among the newer things they\u2019ve done is increase their production of small water bottles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to process our water the same. But we have made improvements to increase our production. We\u2019ve increased our small bottle machinery so that we can produce more small bottles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Saipan Ice noted that there has been a shift in the water buying habits of some customers who used to buy imported water. Now, they buy them locally through Saipan Ice, which then benefits the island\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been steadily growing the last two years, New jobs are being created,\u201d Andrew Morishige said. \u201cWe\u2019ve actually grown by at least 10 people. It always translates to more jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite this, Andrew Morishige said it is never their only goal to just increase sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve acquired more trust; we earned the trust of more people so our sales go up. It\u2019s never a goal to just increase sales. It\u2019s a goal to serve customers right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Andrew Morishige is proud of the company and he believes Saipan Ice will be around for another 30 years and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Our greatest achievement is] that we\u2019ve continued the legacy that my grandfather, founder Tony Pellegrino, started\u2014to earn trust by giving good customer service and quality products. We haven\u2019t reinvented the wheel. We just honed in on the best practices that he set forth. We\u2019ll never stop improving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Saipan Ice & Water would also like to thank all other local water companies as well as the community as a whole for their cooperation to best serve everyone throughout the recovery after Typhoon Soudelor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Saipan. We care about your health!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the things that Typhoon Soudelor has made us realize is how essential water…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7346,7347,1972,6333],"class_list":["post-211586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-andrew-morishige","tag-regina-morishige","tag-saipan-ice-water","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}