 1906Athanassios Karvelas, better known as Tom Carvel, was born in Athens, Greece on July 14th 1910 Tom Carvel was brought to New York City by his parents 1929 After borrowing $15 from his future wife, Agnes Stewart, Tom Carvel began his company by selling ice cream from the back of his mobile truck
Begins manufacturing equipment for sale to the ice cream industry  1936Forms Carvel Corporation 1936 Opens first store on site of broken down truck 1936 Patents “no air pump” super-low temperature ice cream machine
1936 1937 Tom Carvel marries Agnes Stewart 1939 Tom Carvel builds the first soft serve ice cream machine 
1947Patents all-glass front building with pitched roof; later copied by McDonalds 1947 First to franchise a retail ice cream store in the U.S. 1949 Begins franchisee training seminar, Carvel College of Ice Cream Knowledge (franchisees affectionately refer to it as Sundae School) 1950 Tom Carvel creates most complete franchise contract in industry; only franchise contract to survive the FTC and US Supreme Court 
1951
First in the industry with a round ice cream sandwich, the Flying Saucer 1953 Opens first prefabricated ice cream store in Glastonbury, CT 1954 First in the industry with the gift certificate concept 1954 Holds the first annual “Little Miss Half Pint” beauty pageant for children under the age of six; 15,000 entries received annually 1955 First in the industry with a line of ice cream vending vehicles 1955 First to use CEO in radio and TV commercials 
1956Introduces the first ice cream supermarket on the site of original Hartsdale, NY store 1969 First in industry to develop complete line of all-Kosher products 1972 First in industry to introduce Lo-Yo frozen yogurt and Thinny-Thin frozen dietary desserts 1989 Sells to Investcorp, an international investment bank
1991 Begins Direct Sales Delivery (DSD) Supermarket Branded Freezer Market Program
Develops multi-pronged distribution business model including retail shops, stadiums, super club stores and supermarkets 1998 Places Carvel branded freezers in 4,500 supermarkets 
1998Introduces Lil’ Love cakes 2001 Sells to Roark Capital Group, a private equity firm 2002 Relocates supermarket headquarters to Rocky Hill, CT 2002 Relocates franchise headquarters to Atlanta, GA 
2002Sets Guinness World Record™ for Largest Ice Cream Scoop Pyramid 2003 Introduces 98% Fat Free Flying Saucers, Uptown Smoothies, and Slice Mmm’s 2003 Opens new store prototype in Vero Beach, FL 2004 Celebrates 70th Birthday by setting Guinness World Record for the Largest Ice Cream Cake 
20042004 FOCUS Brands is created; Carvel joins Cinnabon and Seattle’s Best Coffee International to form new food service company 2005 Introduces Sundae Dashers 2006 Celebrates Fudgie the Whale's 30th birthday 2008 Introduces new Arctic Blenders & Carvelattes  Celebrates 75th Anniversary with the giveaway of free Icebergs  |
1934
1936
1990 