— By Katie Lee —
Carvel celebrates 90 years of soft serve ice cream with a new shoppe design and growth in new markets.
Success doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen by accident. However, the beloved ice cream brand Carvel may beg to differ. It was way back in 1934, in Hartsdale, New York, when founder Tom Carvel had a flat tire in his ice cream truck. Pulling over, he tried to salvage the product he had left and sold the slightly melted ice cream to people passing by. To his surprise, they preferred the ice cream softer. And so, The Original Soft Serve® was born.
In the decades that followed, Carvel continued to hone its soft serve invention, along with its famous ice cream cakes and frozen treats — becoming as emblematic of a classic, nostalgic American summer as baseball and apple pie. Today, Carvel is part of the GoTo Foods portfolio of brands, headquartered in Atlanta, with more than 350 shoppes in eight different countries and territories around the world. The fully franchised brand continues to grow in existing markets, mainly on the East Coast, as well as entering new markets such as Houston and Gainesville, Florida.
“Just because we are celebrating 90 years of Carvel does not mean momentum is slowing down,” says Jim Salerno, chief brand officer of Carvel. “In fact, we are powering full steam ahead with our eyes set on the 100-year milestone.”
As it marks its 90th anniversary, Carvel is unveiling a new shoppe design. The refreshed look, which debuted earlier this year in Gainesville, Florida, and Jamaica, New York, creates a welcoming environment for guests while also evolving the shoppes’ atmosphere in a way that opens the door for more opportunity for franchise growth in new markets. Carvel leveraged the expertise of an outside design firm, SRG, to help create the roadmap for the new design, but completed the design work in close collaboration with its own in-house construction/design and creative teams.
The new stores will all include a truck mural showcasing the brand’s origin story, which dates back to Memorial Day weekend in 1934. In addition, each city will have a unique “Stay Classic” mural celebrating the neighborhoods that Carvel serves.
“This design is fresh and modern — as a brand, we are proud of what it represents: an impressive 90-year history and continued growth in the present and future,” Salerno says.
Based on extensive research, Carvel’s first visual refresh in a decade centers around its classic soft serve and introduces an updated logo and bright, bold colors.
“Carvel is an iconic and beloved brand, but we knew it was time for a refresh to make the brand even more attractive to our guests,” Salerno says. “Our product speaks for itself, and we now feature a modern, vibrant space that speaks to our legacy and history.”
As part of its new design, Carvel is offering a reduced equipment package, which will allow for more variety. For instance, a new multi-flavor soft-serve machine will offer up to nine flavors and run alongside the standard two-flavor machines. Carvel is also introducing new upright freezers, simplified digital menu boards and a small freezer in the main counter for grab-and-go novelties. “When guests walk in, they will see digital menu boards on the side of the shoppe — this will allow guests to review the menu before they arrive at the counter, which ultimately improves guest flow,” Salerno says. “In addition to our scooped ice cream along the counter, we also have added a small freezer for guests to purchase individual novelty items like the Flying Saucers or Ice Cream Pops. We also updated our freezers to an upright model which allows us to better showcase our cakes and frozen treats. With the freezers flanking the side of the shoppe, we have made it even easier for our consumers to select an item to take home and enjoy.”
Salerno explains how cakes and novelties are made fresh in the front of the shoppe but can be finished in the back of house. With this in mind, Carvel streamlined the flow in the back of house to better match the new front of house design. Overall square footage is largely unchanged; the brand works closely with its franchisees to ensure that the most important elements of the design are incorporated into their shoppes, regardless of size.
“Our flexible footprints range from 800 to 1,800 square feet, with 1,200 to 1,400 square feet being optimal for operational efficiency and best guest experience,” Salerno says. “One of the best things about Carvel is the ability to fit in multiple different types of venues and in a wide variety of real estate options. Regardless of square footage, a Carvel shoppe will work in endcap or inline locations, in urban, high foot traffic areas or standalone locations in more suburban markets.”
The flexible footprints allow the brand to thrive in any market. Various models range from 800 to 1,800 square feet, from full shoppes (traditional locations) to co-branded locations (in which Carvel is paired with one or more complementary brands in the GoTo Foods family) to express shoppes (which integrate into non-traditional venues like airports, stadiums, arenas, theme parks or department stores).
The first two shoppes to feature the new look demonstrate the design’s adaptability. The location in Jamaica, New York, is a more urban location, while the Gainesville, Florida, location is more suburban. “Both are fantastic representations of how this new design comes to life in two distinctly different pieces of real estate,” Salerno says.
Carvel is currently exploring growth opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic areas of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The company has a strong presence in Florida, but is also exploring the white space in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
“There is so much runway for Carvel to continue to grow in markets across the U.S. and around the world,” Salerno says. “With flexible footprints, we can fit in a wide variety of real estate, meaning we still have room to grow in our core markets in the Northeast — think New York, New Jersey, Connecticut.”
Another area where Carvel sees great opportunity is in the co-brand space, where parent company GoTo Foods is already an established leader. “Carvel pairs nicely with Cinnabon® and Auntie Anne’s®, and we are even seeing success in putting these three brands together in a tri-brand location,” Salerno says. “In the future, we are expanding through co-branding, starting with Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s.”
Earlier this year, Focus Brands rebranded to GoTo Foods — marking the final step in a years-long transition into a fully integrated platform company. Other brands under GoTo’s umbrella include Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jamba, Moe’s Southwest Grill, McAlister’s Deli and Schlotzsky’s. The Carvel brand benefits from the collective scale of GoTo Foods and its value-driving engines, such as in-house supply chain, digital and loyalty experts, a full-service development team that provides support from signing to opening, and the support of a dedicated brand team with nearly 50 years of collective experience and expertise leading the Carvel brand.
As part of a company-wide initiative, GoTo Foods announced earlier this year that all of its brands will be transitioning to a single POS platform, Qu. “This is hugely significant for the Carvel brand,” Salerno says. “With all our shoppes on a single POS system, we will be able to further expand our omnichannel offerings to better serve our guests on multiple different ordering channels.”
Carvel is also preparing for the launch of its first-ever app, which creates the opportunity to reach a larger audience, more frequently. “The guest is at the center of everything that we do, and our continued digital transformation is being done with this audience top of mind,” Salerno says.
This summer, Salerno himself is celebrating 26 years with Carvel. “It is a very special brand and, each day, I am honored to lead a brand that I personally loved and enjoyed while growing up in New York,” he says. “This brand was Tom Carvel’s passion, and I have the responsibility of ensuring his legacy of 90 years, to 100 and beyond. Generations of guests and franchisees are counting on the continued excellence they have come to expect from Carvel.”
SIDEBAR:
HOW CARVEL MAINTAINS ITS SHOPPES
R&R: Describe how Carvel handles repair and maintenance. Do you have an in-house maintenance department, or do you rely on vendors? Or do franchisees handle R&M individually?
Salerno: Most of our equipment vendors include service options, which is very convenient for our franchisees. Our internal supply chain team also provides our franchisees with national R&M programs. This is one of the benefits of an in-house supply chain organization — we have opportunities to secure competitive rates for R&M from nationally-recognized vendors.
R&R: Do you use local or national vendors?
Salerno: Because we have a high concentration of shoppes in certain markets, there is opportunity to use both local and national vendors; however, it is dependent on the equipment.
R&R: How has everyday restaurant maintenance (jan/san and otherwise) evolved since the pandemic? Does Carvel have any unique experiences or things they learned from that period?
Salerno: Like all businesses, we took the necessary steps to ensure both guest and employee safety at the onset of the pandemic. We took a close look at our existing cleaning and sanitizing procedures to ensure maximum efficiency and made some improvements including adding a virus killing surface contact sanitizer by Purell. Hand sanitizer was available for guests, as well. We also added plexiglass barriers in place to protect employees. Many shoppes added walkup windows, and, of course, gloves and masks were also mandatory. Most of those best practices remain in place today.
— This article was first published as the cover story of the July 2024 issue of Retail & Restaurant Facility Business magazine. To have your retail or restaurant company profiled on an upcoming cover, please email the editor, Katie Lee, at [email protected].