Carvel, America’s iconic ice cream franchise, is opening its doors in India this August. Carvel was founded in 1934 by Tom Carvel and has a 91-year legacy behind it. The brand is the creator of soft serve ice creams. Starting with a store in South Delhi, they plan to expand to 100 stores across the country over the next few years. The Indian expansion is led by Unify Foodworks.

Carvel was founded in 1934 by Tom Carvel
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement

How the soft serve was invented

The story goes that Tom Carvel, a Greek-born American, was selling ice creams from a truck in the state of New York in 1934. When his truck had a flat tyre, he started quickly selling the ice cream before it melted. It turned out to be a huge hit. This gave him the idea that soft desserts, as opposed to frozen ice cream, could also be a business idea. Some other brands also claim to have invented the soft serve, but Carvel created a special recipe and also patented soft serve ice cream machines. It became one of the first fast food restaurants in the US, much before the likes of McDonald’s and Burger King.

Since then, the brand is known for pioneering ice creams. Their popular ice cream cakes feature special characters created around holidays, such as Cookie Puss, Fudgie the Whale and Hug-Me the Bear.

Carvel ice cream
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement

India chapter

“India is a promising new market for Carvel. We see strong alignment between Carvel’s legacy of quality and flavour, and the evolving tastes of Indian consumers,” says Steven Yang, Senior Vice President, APAC at GoTo Foods International (the parent company of Carvel). “Our work with Unify Foodworks gives us the local insight and operational strength needed to grow with intention and impact.” Unify Foods is a company that began in 2024 with the aim of bringing international QSR chains to India.

The first store will open in Delhi. “We are not disclosing the location as of now,” says Sumer Sethi, founder of Unify Foods. “But it will be located in south Delhi.” He shares that at Carvel will be using fresh milk and cream at the store in developing the ice cream, something other soft serve brands in India do not do. All the signature offerings from the US, such as the Flying Saucer ice cream sandwich, will be available in India. “We are localising many of the flavours for India. We will have kunafa, tapioca toppings and Rooh Afza syrups.” The soft serves will be priced for ₹79.

The plan is to start with North India in the first one-and-a-half years. They are eyeing Bengaluru and other south Indian cities in year three.