32°04′51″N 81°05′16″W / 32.0807°N 81.0877°W
 | |
 The store in Savannah's City Market | |
| Company type | Candy manufacturers |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1973 |
| Founders | Stan and Pam Strickland |
| Headquarters | 225 East River Street Savannah, Georgia (flagship store) |
Number of locations | 7[1] |
| Revenue | $35 million[2] |
| Owners | Stan Strickland Tonya Strickland Rhett Strickland |
| Website | www |
Savannah's Candy Kitchen is a chain of candy manufacturers established in Savannah, Georgia. It was founded in 1973 by Stan and Pam Strickland.[3] Today, it has eight stores around the United States,[1] plus several franchises under the name River Street Sweets, but its flagship store is at 225 East River Street in Savannah. A second Savannah store was opened in the Abraham Minis Building in Franklin Square in City Market.[3] It also has two stores at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta (Concourse B, opened in 2005; Concourse C, opened in 2012).[4][3]
The company is the largest producer of praline in the United States.
History
edit
Stan and Pam Strickland founded River Street Sweets in 1973,[5] having fallen in love with ornaments at Christmas markets in Germany.[6][2] They soon realized that selling candy year-round was a mistake, however. Rent was $50 a month, and they had trouble making it. To help make ends meet, Pam became a teacher, then a librarian, and Stan a wine salesman. In the meantime, they tried to sell the store but could not.[2] They bought some pralines while in Charleston, South Carolina, and customers bought them from their store. They went to a gift show in Atlanta a short time later, in 1978. Their son, Tim, found a fudge-making machine, which his parents bought.[2]
The Stricklands looked for recipes to make praline. Stan would man the stove, and make some in a saucepan. One night, they made three pieces of candy, put it on wax paper, "and boy, it was good," said Stan.[2] They then found out they could make pralines in the fudge-making machine, despite recommendations from the manufacturer against doing so, warning that it could kill somebody.[2]
Stan purchased a slab of marble, weighing about 800 pounds (360 kg), from a local stonemason on which to let the hot pralines cool. After making a batch, some customers walked in and could smell the candy being made.[2]
In 1991, the Stricklands got divorced and split the company and the family. Pam got the original name and two stores; Stan got two stores (Atlanta and Orlando) and later opened a rival company, Savannah's Candy Kitchen, also on River Street. Their children, Jennifer and Tim, worked exclusively for Pam, and the family did not speak for about twenty years.[2]
In 1996, the company expanded and moved part of their production into a factory outside of town to handle its mail orders.[3] It now uses one in Savannah, in a 75,000 square feet (7,000 m2) facility.[2]
The business expanded outside of Savannah for the first time in 2003, when it opened an outlet in Charleston.[3]
Around 2008, Jennifer and Tim broke the silence and began communicating with their father.[2] Seven years later, Savannah's Candy Kitchen and River Street Sweets merged brand names. The first franchise location opened at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Pooler, Georgia.[4] As of 2016, sales of the combined entities were $35 million.[2][7] They make 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) of pralines a day (the most in the United States), and between 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) and 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg) of candy per day in total.[2] Some products were not a success, including chocolate-covered bananas.[2]
As of 2019, the business has been in the Strickland family for three generations, and is now the largest candy store in the South.[4]
Above the River Street entrance to the Candy Kitchen hangs a copper kettle.[4] Inside the store there is a salt water taffy machine that dates to 1914.[3]
Current locations
editSavannah's Candy Kitchen
edit- Georgia
- River Street, Savannah
- 312 West Julian Street, Savannah
- Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta (two locations)
- South Carolina
- Market Street, Charleston
- Tennessee
- Broadway, Nashville
- Maryland
- American Way, Oxon Hill
References
edit- ^ a b Our Locations – Savannah's Candy Kitchen
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Family Candy Business, Split By Bitter Divorce, Got Back Together With $35M Sweets Empire" – Forbes, December 19, 2016
- ^ a b c d e f "Savannah's Candy Kitchen Gets Chatty" – Savannah's Candy Kitchen
- ^ a b c d Our Story – Savannah's Candy Kitchen
- ^ "11 hot franchises for the summer" – CNBC, July 7, 2016
- ^ Our Story and History – River Street Sweets
- ^ River Street Sweets-Savannah's Candy Kitchen – Tanget Outlets