Carvel (franchise) facts for kids
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A Carvel franchise location in Canton, Michigan
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| Subsidiary of Focus Brands | |
| Industry | |
| Genre | Ice cream parlor |
| Founded | 1929 in Hartsdale, New York |
| Founder | Tom Carvel |
| Headquarters | , |
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Number of locations
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320 |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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Jim Salerno (Chief Brand Officer) Jim Holthouser (CEO) |
| Products | Soft serve, milkshakes, sundaes, frozen treats, cakes |
| Services | Franchising |
| Revenue |  US$67.8 million (2019) |
| Owner | Roark Capital Group |
| Parent | Focus Brands |
| Footnotes / references https://www.focusbrands.com/leadership/ |
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Carvel is a famous American ice cream company. It's known for its soft-serve ice cream and special ice cream cakes with "crunchies." They also sell fun ice cream bars and sandwiches. Their slogan is "America's Freshest Ice Cream."
Carvel has over 300 ice cream shops, mostly in the Northeast U.S. and Florida. You can find them in busy places like airports and malls. The company also sells its ice cream cakes in more than 8,500 supermarkets. Since 2001, Carvel has been part of a larger company called Focus Brands.
Contents
Fun Ice Cream Treats
Carvel is famous for creating many unique ice cream treats. Some of these include:
- The "Flying Saucer": A round ice cream sandwich.
- The "Icy Wycy": A paper cone of sherbet on a stick.
- "Brown Bonnet" and "Cherry Bonnet": Vanilla ice cream on a sugar cone dipped in a sweet coating.
- The "Tortoni": A cup of vanilla ice cream with toasted coconut and a maraschino cherry.
- The "Lollapalooza": Cylindrical ice cream on a stick covered with colorful sprinkles. There were also "Mamapalooza" and "Papapalooza" versions.
Special Ice Cream Cakes
Carvel's main ice cream cakes come in different shapes and sizes. They also have famous character cakes like Cookie Puss, Fudgie the Whale, and Hug-Me the Bear.
Carvel makes special cakes for many holidays. For example, there's a "Flower Basket" for Mother's Day and "Tom the Turkey" for Thanksgiving. The Santa Claus cake even has a two-pointed hat! This is because the same mold is used to make Fudgie the Whale, who has a tail. The main difference between these holiday cakes and regular ones is their special icing designs.
In 1998, Carvel introduced the Lil' Love ice cream cake. Commercials for these cakes showed kids celebrating small victories, like losing a baby tooth or getting good grades. The ads always ended with the message: Surprise someone special tonight.
Carvel's Story
Carvel was started by Tom Carvel and he ran the company for its first 60 years.
How it All Began
In 1929, Tom Carvel borrowed $15 from his future wife. He used this money to buy an ice cream truck. In 1934, his truck got a flat tire in Hartsdale, New York. Tom decided to sell his ice cream right there. He sold all his ice cream, even though some of it had partly melted! This made him realize that having a fixed shop and selling soft ice cream was a great idea.
He earned over $3,500 in his first year. By 1937, he had a proper ice cream stand at the same spot. He even had a special freezer to make his ice cream.
Growing the Business
In the early 1940s, Tom Carvel traveled and sold ice cream at carnivals. His wife, Agnes, managed the Hartsdale shop. During World War II, he worked at ice cream stands at Fort Bragg. This helped him learn a lot about refrigeration.
He invented a special freezer called the "Custard King." In 1947, he sold 71 of these freezers. Some people who bought his freezers didn't pay him back. Tom found out they weren't running their businesses well. They picked bad locations and didn't keep things clean. So, Tom decided to help his freezer customers run their shops better. He later said this is how he came up with the idea of franchising.
Franchising and Advertising
In 1949, Carvel started letting other people open Carvel shops. This is called franchising. By the early 1950s, there were over 50 Carvel stores. New shop owners went through an 18-day training program at the "Carvel College of Ice Cream Knowledge." They also received a special magazine called "The Shopper's Road."
In 1955, Tom Carvel started recording his own radio commercials. He had a unique, "gravelly" voice that wasn't like professional voice actors. His commercials were very natural and often ended with "Thank You." These ads helped make Carvel very well-known.
In 1971, Carvel started showing TV commercials, mainly in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. These ads showed the products and employees in the stores, with Tom Carvel's familiar voice.
Carvel has always used promotions. In 1936, they had a "Buy One Get One Free" deal. They also partnered with other groups, like the New York Yankees. A very popular promotion was "Wednesday is Sundae at Carvel!" which offered discounts.
Later Years
In 1956, Carvel turned its Hartsdale shop into an "Ice Cream Supermarket." This meant customers could pick out pre-made cakes and treats from freezer cases.
Carvel also tried different ways to sell ice cream from vehicles, like a scooter and a special truck called the "Carvehicle."
In 1967, the company bought a motel and turned it into the Carvel Inn. This became their main office and a place for annual meetings with shop owners.
In the late 1970s, Carvel started offering healthier options. These included a low-fat frozen dessert called Thinny-Thin and a frozen yogurt product called Lo-Yo. From 1973 to 1975, Carvel even had its own comic book to promote the brand.
By 1985, there were 865 Carvel stores.
In 1989, Tom Carvel sold the company. In 2001, a company called Roark Capital Group bought most of Carvel.
For most of its history, Carvel was mainly known on the East Coast of the United States. Now, Carvel products are sold in about 9,500 supermarkets across many states. They also partner with other brands, like making ice cream cakes with Mars' M&M's characters.
The very first Carvel store in Hartsdale, New York, closed in 2008 and was later taken down to build a Japanese restaurant.
In 2015, Carvel began opening shops that share space with other food brands, like Auntie Anne's and Cinnabon.
As of 2023, there are about 331 Carvel locations in the U.S.
See also
- List of dairy product companies in the United States
- List of frozen custard companies
