We are the factory, not a trading company.
GLACIO Machinery builds open-bowl showcase batch freezers in Jinhua, Zhejiang — the machines that make hard ice cream, gelato and sorbet in front of the customer. One platform, four models, six thousand counters running it across eighty countries.
We also build them for other people. Panels, silkscreen logos, localised interfaces and manuals are all done in-house, which is why a good share of the machines you already recognise from European and North American brands come off this line under a different nameplate.
What we make, and who it is for.
Showcase batch freezers
Freezing and churning happen inside the open display bowl, behind a heated anti-fog dome. Product is made in 15–20 minute batches, served at roughly −12 °C, and stays visible the entire time.
Scoop shops, cafés, bakeries
Most customers are independent operators opening their first frozen dessert counter, or existing shops adding gelato beside coffee and pastry. Store counts run from one unit to a national rollout.
Distributors and OEM brands
Roughly half our volume ships as OEM or ODM. Tooling and panel changes start at 30 units, with a documented interface for certification paperwork in the destination market.
Every machine is tested until we would buy it.
The line does not ship a unit that has not run eight hours at full load with the bowls held at minus twelve. That test is not a formality: it is where a weak weld, a slow evacuation or a mis-set expansion valve shows up, on our floor instead of on yours.
- Eight-hour full-load run — every unit, before it earns a nameplate.
- Bowl stability of ±0.5 °C — measured across the full cycle, not just at the start.
- Leak and pressure testing on every refrigeration circuit, including the joints that only fail in the field.
- Electrical and safety verification against CE and ETL requirements, with the documentation pack issued per serial number.
- Ten-year design life — the target that decides which components we refuse to substitute.
If a batch fails the test, the machine does not ship late-and-hoped-for. It goes back to the line. The record for a complete GB-4 is on file against its serial number, and we will send it to you before you pay a deposit.
Support that survives the container.
The failure mode we care about is not the sale, it is month fourteen: a shop in another country, a machine down on a Saturday, and nobody on the other end of the email. Everything below exists to make that situation short.
- Spare parts dispatch within 48 hours from the factory stock, with the same part numbers used on the assembly line.
- Remote diagnosis by the engineers who built the machine — control software, wiring diagrams and refrigeration readings, by video call.
- Installation and commissioning support for first-time buyers, including voltage and breaker confirmation before the unit ships.
- Documentation in the destination language for OEM and distributor orders, prepared alongside the certification pack.
Guides written from these support conversations are published on the GLACIO Journal — cleaning routines, troubleshooting, sizing and running costs. They are the questions we answer on the phone every week, written down once.
How we work with a new buyer.
- 1. You describe the store. Store count, daily cups or litres, flavours you intend to display, voltage and available footprint.
- 2. We answer with a specification. Bowl count, model, unit count and an FOB quote — usually within 24 hours, from an export engineer rather than a call centre.
- 3. We confirm the electrical and installation reality. Breaker size, drain and water access, clearance for the domes, and what the machine weighs loaded.
- 4. Production, test, document, ship. Eight-hour load test, certification pack, container loading photographs, and the serial-number test record on request.
- 5. Support after arrival. Commissioning help, spare parts, and the engineers who tested the unit on the other end of the line.
Evaluating suppliers right now?
Send us the same brief you send everyone else. We will tell you which of the four models actually fits — and when the honest answer is a smaller machine than you asked for.