Igor Van Gerwen may be about to let out his belt, so to speak, for the third time. Anvers Confectionery keeps outgrowing its premises as the popularity of the truffles, fudge and now, the eat-in chocolate creations, increases.
The enterprise started in a double garage underneath Igor’s house in Latrobe in 1989. The company is named after the city we call Antwerp, but Belgians call Anvers. It’s Igor’s home town, where he got a very early start on his career, beginning a patisserie apprenticeship at school when he was 12 years old.
By the time he was 17 he was fully qualified, and at 21 he came to Tasmania to work at Klaas’s Bakehouse in Deloraine. Two years later he was in business on his own behalf in the double garage.
Before long, a new factory and office was built alongside the garage, which became a packing room. By this time Igor was married to Jocelyn who he had met at a friend’s wedding. The couple have a daughter Kate, aged 3½, and a second child will be born any day now.
The next move for Anvers was to the former Wyndarra Lodge, now named the House of Anvers, on the Bass Highway near Latrobe. This is a restaurant and chocolatier, and you can watch the chocolates being made through a window and learn the history of chocolate in a small museum.
The House of Anvers opened in October, 2002, just in time to be ready for the Spirit of Tasmania II to join Spirit I on the run between Devonport and Melbourne. The House of Anvers, where you can buy cakes and little cups of chocolate too delicate to be distributed to shops, has been busy from its first day. At the same time sales to mainland retail chains and Tasmania have taken off.
In 2000, Igor stopped importing couverture chocolate from Belgium for his products, and instead had it made in New South Wales to his specifications – 64% cocoa butter for dark chocolate and 35% for milk chocolate. That year 5 tonnes was enough for a year’s production; now Anvers Confectionery is using 17.5 tonnes a year, and that empty factory in Railton may have to be brought back into production.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
