Our History
The Carousel Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1985, originally to house the activities of a local band that was being managed by David Grafman. In 1988, after the dream of managing world tours faded, the focus turned to the imprinted promotional products industry. Mr. Grafman’s experience at K-SHE radio in purchasing the “Schtuff” for the world famous station was a natural outlet to expand his selling skills acquired during the 5 years since the radio station was sold in February 1984.
Since the fall of 1988 The Carousel Group, Inc. has provided custom imprinted items for personal and business use to literally thousands of satisfied customers. Recognizing early that the way to separate this company from the rest of the pack and playing off the original industry name of Advertising Specialties, the first slogan for the company was developed; “Service…is our specialty!”
David and Lisa
Though the years the company has remained true to its mantra that service is the most important element of what we do. The product line has continued to evolve over the years and in 2004 The Carousel Group, Inc. brought all embroidery in-house with the purchase of our own embroidery machines. Several years earlier the bulk of the silk-screen operations were converted to an in-house operation. By moving both of these operations in-house the company offers some of the best service and quality. The last several years the focus has been on the needs of the underserved market for smaller orders. The genesis for this approach was based on the personal experience of the Grafman family and the difficulties in being able to land orders for many of the hockey teams that their children played on. The market just didn’t serve the 15 and 20 piece orders very efficiently and trying to reorder one or two pieces was next to impossible.
In late 2002 a strategic decision was made to have Lisa Grafman join the company full time. Since that time the growth has been exponential. Today the Carousel Group, Inc. serves their customers in a variety of areas that include the entire imprinted promotional products industry (pens, mugs, magnets etc.), wearables and team spirit wear, and custom designing merchandise and apparel programs for local sports teams, schools and businesses. The growth of these programs has been overwhelming but exciting.