GRAYS FERRY, PA. — D’Ambrosio Bakery, a producer and distributor of specialty Italian style bread and rolls throughout the greater Philadelphia marketplace, has closed.
The company was founded in 1939 by Vincent D’Ambrosio as a small bakery in the basement of Mr. D’Ambrosio’s home in South Philadelphia. In 1943, he moved to a three story row home in South Philadelphia. Within seven years he purchased the two homes next door, added pastries to his offerings and opened a retail bakery shop. Within another 10 years, Mr. D’Ambrosio’s two sons, Christopher and Vincent Jr., had joined the business.
In October 1977, D’Ambrosio Bakery moved into a 10,000-square-foot facility in South Philadelphia, and by 1985 the company had added to the building, doubling its size and adding a full second production line. The company expanded again in 1991 with two 40,000-lb capacity flour silos and a larger oven.
The D’Ambrosios sold the company in 2005 to Gatehouse Ventures of Berwyn, a leveraged-buyout specialist that only a few years earlier was building a portfolio of bread bakeries, including Amalfitano’s in Delaware. In 2006, D’Ambrosio took over certain assets of Vilotti-Pisanelli Baking.
