Carvel Ice Cream Franchise

Carvel is an American ice cream franchise owned by Focus Brands. Carvel is best known for its soft-serve ice cream and ice cream cakes, which feature a layer of distinctive "crunchies". It also sells a variety of novelty ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches. Its slogan is "America's Freshest Ice Cream".  Carvel operates a chain of 320 ice cream outlets, primarily concentrated in the Northeast United States and Florida. It has locations across 19 states and Puerto Rico in high-traffic areas such as airports, malls, and sports arenas. The company also sells ice cream cakes in more than 8,500 supermarkets.

Since 2001, the corporation has been owned by Roark Capital Group and operated as part of Focus Brands. As of 2020, the Carvel corporate website reports "more than 400 franchise and foodservice locations in more than 20 states and over 10 countries."

## History

Carvel was founded and operated by Tom Carvel for its first 60 years. In 1929, Carvel borrowed $15 ($260 today) from his future wife Agnes and used it to buy and operate an ice cream truck. Over Memorial Day weekend of 1934, Carvel's truck had a flat tire in Hartsdale, New York. Carvel sold his custard at the site of the breakdown. Within two days, Carvel had sold his entire stock, much of it partly melted. He realized that a fixed location and soft (as opposed to hard) frozen desserts were good business ideas. In his first year, he grossed over $3,500. By 1937 he had a custard stand at the Hartsdale site, with a freezer which allowed him to make his frozen custard. By 1939, the gross revenue was over $6,000.

In the early 1940s, Tom Carvel traveled, selling custard at carnivals, while his wife Agnes ran the Hartsdale location. During World War II, he ran the ice cream stands at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, gaining expertise in refrigeration technology. He invented and patented a freezer, the "Custard King", and in 1947 sold 71 freezers at $2,900 each. Some freezer purchasers defaulted on payments on the units. Upon investigation, Carvel found that they needed to run their businesses more efficiently, choosing poor locations and only sometimes maintaining high health standards. Carvel decided that the best course was to participate in running the operations of his freezer customers. He later claimed this led him to develop the concept of franchising. In 1949, Carvel began franchising under the name "Carvel Dari-Freez". By the early 1950s, the company had over 50 stores. New franchisees undertook an 18-day training program at the "Carvel College of Ice Cream Knowledge", and were sent an in-house magazine called "The Shopper's Road". In addition, Carvel provided building plans for franchises, which were initially stand-alone glass-fronted stores. In 1956, Carvel transformed the Hartsdale location into their first "Ice Cream Supermarket" by adding freezer cases containing pre-made cakes and novelty items which customers could choose and purchase. In 1955, Carvel began its "lease back land offer" program, in which a potential investor could buy land, build a franchise, then lease it back to the corporation. As of 2018, there is 371 Carvel franchises worldwide, with 324 in the US.

## Carvels Non-Kosher Hydrox Crumble Era

The Carvel ice cream franchise sold ice-cream goods manufactured with Hydrox cookie crumbs until 2012. Carvel used the cookie's all-kosher status as a selling point, because the original Oreo recipe used lard. The cookies were not specifically mentioned by name on the Carvel website, but they were identified as "hydrox" (lower-case "h") on the in-store posters. Carvel currently uses Oreo cookies in its ice cream goods.