The Carvel Corporation is an American success story. Through hard work and luck its founder and President Tom Carvel turned a dream into a million dollar success. Thomas Andreas Carvelas was born July 14, 1906, in Athanassos Greece in 1910 his family immigrated to Danbury, Connecticut and finally settled in New York City in 1920. Ever since he was a child he has always dreamed of owning his own frozen custard shop. His first break came Memorial Day 1934 when he borrowed $15 dollars from his future wife Agnes Stewart, and bought a trailer load of custard to sell to vacationers in Westchester County, New York. He suffered a setback when his trailer got a flat tire in Hartsdale NY but luck was on his side. Pop Quinlan a pottery shop owner across the street allowed him to use his electricity to keep the custard from melting, Mr. Carvel continued selling from his broken down trailer for many years, this is how he became the nation's first retail ice cream company. Tom Carvel kept his trailer on the pottery lot. The first year he grossed $3,500.00. In 1937 he turned the trailer into a frozen custard stand and by 1939 his yearly gross income was $6,000 a year and he became known as the "Ice Cream King of the East".
Tom Carvel developed his own freezer model, known as the batch freezer (this was only one of his 500 other patents, trademarks and copyright registration). In 1947, under the trade name "Custard King" he sold about 71 freezers for $2,900 each. Not long after selling the freezers many of the buyers started defaulting on their payments for their freezers. Tom Carvel discovered that poor locations, and cleanliness of their shops was the cause for the defaulted payments. He was determined to make his venture successful, and decided to oversee the operations of the freezers directly. Potential Franchise owners in the Carvel Corporation bought equipment and supplies from Mr. Carvel and used the Carvel name. In return the corporation helped them select a location and taught them how to run an ice cream business, this was all taught at the Carvel College an eighteen-day course for potential franchise owners. As a result of this strategy he claimed to have developed the franchise concept in 1949.
Carvel Corp. is known for many of their unique elements in the business. Tom Carvel introduced the marketing concept of "Buy One Get One Free" in 1936 and gift certificates in 1954.
Henry Ford and his engineers designed several automobiles, each one designated by a letter of the alphabet: these included the small, four cylinder Model N (which sold for $500), and the more luxurious six-cylinder Model K (which sold poorly for $2500). In October 1908, ...
Before ice could be preserved in refrigerators, keeping ice cold was a major problem. Back in this time there wasn't good enough technology to refrigerate good enough. Before the invention of refrigerators the only way to cool objects was an insulated box filled with ice. During the time the insulated box was around it only worked for a short time.Although the insulated box also required lots of ice it cooled things very good. Ice was hard to be obtained in summer so it made it even harder to cool things(Burton 52). Before the 1830s it was not possible to manufacture ice.Before the 1830s ice had to be gathered in the winter. The ice that was gathered was stored until summer and then sold for profit. William Cotton saw an opportunity to organize a company and he did.(Burton 52) John Custer became William Cotton’s partner in 1840 in the ice business. To produce ice they made a dam for ice production in the winter. The dam had problems and collapsed which was a big problem(Burton 52). Custer abandoned Mr. Cotton in 1875. Custer left cotton all on his own. John Beard helped Custer build a dam and got partnership of the company as a reward. In 1905 Beard was basically running the whole company. Then in 1905 the companies name was changed to Beard Ice company( Burton 52). Beard now had a slogan. The slog...
For much of its century long history, Nucor Corporation and its predecessors displayed turbulent performance. Several attempts at strategic and leadership realignment proved unsuccessful, and in 1965, the company faced insolvency. Since that time, however, the company has rallied around its steel operations to become the largest steel producer in the United States, with $4.3 billion in net annual sales. This case examines Nucor's development from an unprofitable conglomerate to a highly efficient enterprise. Specific focus on the evolution of the activity system underlying the organization lays the groundwork for systematic analysis of why some companies succeed while others fail.
The Panera Bread Company began in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. Founded by Ron Shaich and Louis Kane, the company thrived along the east coast of the United States and internationally throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s and became the dominant operator within the bakery-café category. In the early 1990’s, Saint Louis Bread company, a chain of 20 bakery-cafes were acquired by the Au Bon Pain Co. Following this purchase, the company redesigned the newly acquired company and increased unit volumes by 75%. This new concept was named Panera Bread. Top management chose to sell their previous bakery-café known as Au Bon Pain Co. due to the financial and managerial needs of Panera. In order for Panera to become the success top management visualized all resources needed to become available for Panera. Panera Bread is now the most successful bakery-café in the category in which there are currently 1,777 bakery-cafes in 45 states and in Ontario Canada (Panera Bread).
Henry Ford was in two companies before making a successful company. The first company he had was first named Cadillac Motor Company then changed into the Ford Motor Company when they went bankrupt once, which was established in August 22, 1902. He went into this company with twenty-eight thousand dollars and eleven men. This company only made around five cars a day. The only way that they made cars was that they would group three guys on one car. During this time, the Great Depression was going on which made one of the toughest times to sell cars. When the company went bankrupt twice, he was not about to give up. When he was forty years old, he created the Ford Motor Company. On one of his projects he made a design for a car that broke the fastest car record. Once the word went around people started to buy his cars. Once the Great Depression ended he started making money. Today Ford Motor Company is one of the most successful company in America.
From the very beginning, Kroger worked to please customers. He believed in never selling anything that you yourself, would not buy and set out satisfy customers and provide goods and services that were needed in the Cincinnati area. In those humble beginnings, Kroger invested his life savings of $372 and due to his commitment to what we now call Customer Relationship Management techniques, grew to the multi-billion dollar chain that it is today.
(Potential $loss if reduce price = 94962.yr but losing market would be a bigger problem.)
bills when they are due and to take care of unexpected needs for cash, while
The automobile industry began with Henry Ford’s production of the Model T in the early 1900’s. With the creation of the assembly line, cars became cheaper and quicker to produce, thus making them affordable for many people. There were originally 500 auto manufacturers. By 1908, there were only 200; and in 1917 only 23 remained. This vast reduction was due to large amounts of consolidation within the industry.
Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc., the Vermont-based manufacturer of ice cream, frozen yoghurt and sorbet, was founded in 1978, with a $12,000 investment ($4,000 of which was borrowed). It soon became popular for its innovative flavours, made from fresh Vermont milk and cream. The company currently distributes ice cream, low fat ice cream, frozen yoghurt, sorbet and novelty products nationwide as well as in selected foreign countries in supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, franchised Ben & Jerry's scoop shops, restaurants and other venues.
Staying in touch with their customers would not enable Ben and Jerry to be as successful as they have become if their ice cream was not high quality as well. The second value the company espouses is to use only wholesome, natural ingredients. They began their operation on this premise, utilizing fresh Vermont milk and cream to create their frozen concoctions. During a period of volatility in the dairy market in 1991, the company went so far as to pay a dairy premium totaling a half million dollars to combat Vermont dairy farmers’ losses. This helped protect the family farmers who supplied the milk for Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
The origins of ice cream go way back to the 4th century B.C. In the 13th century, Marco Polo learned of the Chinese method of creating ice and milk mixtures and brought it back to Europe. It became a fashionable treat in Italy and France.
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903 (“Ford Motor Company”.). In 1908 GM was founded (“Company: History and Heritage”.) and in 1937 Mopar was founded (“Evolution of a trademark”). Today, there are numerous automobile companies in competition and the automobile is the most reliable transportation in America and around the world. The invention of the automobile undoubtedly had one of the biggest impacts on American History.
The history of ice cream goes all the way back to the Fourth century B.C. Early allude to this amazing delicacy involve the Roman emperor Nero (A.D. 37-68) who demanded ice to be brought down from the mountains and merged it with fruit toppings, and King Tang (A.D. 618-97) of Shang, China who had a stroke of genius to creating ice and milk combinations. Ice cream was most likely token over from China back to Europe. Over time, recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices progressed and were distributed in the well liked Italian and French royal courts. After the dessert was imported to the U.S., it was distributed by many well-known Americans. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson served it to their guests. In 1700, Governor Bladen of Maryland was recorded as having served it to his guests. In 1774, a London caterer named Philip Lenzi announced in a New Y...
In the USA in 1896 Henry Ford build his first car and innovate the assembly line which allowed him to mass production and making affordable cars to the customers ( Gale, 2003).