About SCARAMUS

SCARAMUS is a family-owned business created by Arni Helgason and his wife, Maria Karlsdottir.

Our company, M-A-Trade, was founded in 2011. We originally worked with market sales before moving into importing and retail. After several years away from the business due to work, we decided it was time to bring it back to life — this time in a new way.

As our lives changed, we wanted to build something we could manage from home and enjoy working on together. With our experience in trade and retail, an online store felt like the natural choice.

And there was another important part of the decision: we love animals.

Over the years, we have had some wonderful dogs, and Arni has also owned several horses. Today, we have our little dog, Oscar, who has become a very important part of the SCARAMUS story.

Why SCARAMUS?

From the beginning, we wanted to think bigger than just selling in Denmark. Our goal was always to create something international — starting in Europe, then the United States, and eventually wherever SCARAMUS can grow.

When we started looking for suppliers, something unexpected happened. Our search for European suppliers was moving slowly, while suppliers in the United States were quick to respond and ready to help us get started.

So we decided:

Why wait? Let's start in the USA.

We put our time and energy into creating the best store we could for American customers, and SCARAMUS USA became our first step toward building the international business we originally imagined.

Where did the name come from?

This is probably our favorite part of the story.

We spent a lot of time discussing names. There were plenty of ideas — and plenty of discussions! 😄

Then we thought about our little dog Oscar.

We got Oscar about 16 months before starting SCARAMUS. He was a tiny Papillon puppy, and because he was "small as a mouse", as we joked about in Danish, we started calling him Scaramus.

The name came from combining:

(O)scar + mus

"Mus" is the Danish word for mouse.

It later turned out that Oscar wasn't quite the pure Papillon we had thought. It seems his mother may have had a little secret visit from another breed. 😂

Oscar just kept growing and growing, eventually stopping at around 22 lbs.

But whatever his breed, one thing has never been in doubt: he is the most wonderful dog.

That's Oscar you see on our homepage and in the SCARAMUS logo — the little dog who inspired the name and became part of the story behind our business.