The retail store on the first floor of a large yellow building off the White Horse Pike is the area that retail customers see. There they can browse through boxes that will be filled with chocolate sweets for Feb. 14, buy a candy kiss or select a card.
But the heart of the Giambri operation is behind the scenes in a 40-by-60- foot kitchen filled with machinery, colorful boxes and enough chocolate to satisfy the most rabid chocaholic's cravings. Here copper pots boil sweet concoctions, while overhead, in the second-floor production area, are the huge slabs of chocolate that will eventually become delicate shells or will be used to cover nuts, caramel or coconut.
The room is dominated by a $60,000 machine, called an enrober. Everything - butter creams, orange jellies, pretzels - goes through the enrober. During that process, a worker makes the identifying swirls on top of the chocolates.
The business was started in 1915 on Indiana Avenue in Philadelphia by James Giambri, great-uncle to the five brothers who, with their mother, Josephine, now run the operation. Josephine and her husband, Anthony, bought the business in 1971 and moved it to Clementon.
The brothers in the business are Anthony, 33; Joseph, 31; Salvatore, 29; Matthew, 27, and David, 25. The elder Anthony died in 1980.
The facility normally operates with seven to 10 people, including the family members. David Giambri said that during the busy seasons, some people worked 10- to 12-hour days. In the slack season during the summer, the store is open only one day a week.
Giambri's produces several lines of candy: all-natural, salt- and sugar- free (the most expensive), carob, white coating/pastel shades (with no chocolate in it), and milk and dark chocolate.
Mamie Zabak, who has worked in the candy business for about 60 years, the last 13 with Giambri's, has a high opinion of the candy she coats and decorates. "I think it's the best," she said.
