Chesapeake Bay Candle

Candle factory brings manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

Conveyor belts are raring to go at the Glen Burnie factory of Pacific Trade International, the Rockville company behind Chesapeake Bay Candle. Opening this Tuesday, the 117,200-square-foot plant is the company’s first in the United States, after 16 years of manufacturing all of its products in Asia .

The move toward domestic production comes as the cost advantages of manufacturing in Asia are waning, and Chesapeake Bay Candle’s distribution channels in the United States continue to grow.

The line of brilliantly colored, scented candles can be found on the shelves at some of the largest stores, including Target, Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s. Sales topped $84 million in 2010 and new orders are flowing. The Glen Burnie factory is designed to help shorten turnaround on those orders.

Getting the plant up and running, however, has been a test of will for the company’s founders, David Wang and Mei Xu . The husband-and-wife team faced regulatory roadblocks at every turn, making them question the government’s commitment to revitalizing manufacturing.

“The government talks about wanting business to come back from Asia, but they have nothing in place to guide businesses through the endless regulations,”Mei said.

Converting a former liquor warehouse into an automated manufacturing and distribution plant proved far more challenging than Mei anticipated. When she and her husband leased the space in March, they figured it would take six months to renovate at a cost of $2.5 million based on other factories they, and their local contractors, had opened.

That didn’t quite pan out.

Officials objected to the site plan for not meeting building codes. Bob Hannon, chief executive of the Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corp., said the county worked with Chesapeake Bay Candle from the outset of the project, but it was clear the company wasn’t fully aware of what the renovation would entail. Xu conceded that the building required far more work than expected, but maintains the county should offer a “concierge service” to guide businesses through the process.

“Time is money. And when it takes an inordinate amount of time to get a permit or something reviewed, it becomes expensive and prohibitive,” said Mike Galiazzo, president of the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland, a trade association. “If Maryland received more support from public policymakers, the success we have now would be accelerated.

After Searching the World Over, Chesapeake Bay Candle is Finding ...

Having started the company in the basement of their Annapolis, Maryland home in 1994, husband-and-wife team Mei Xu and David Wang are preparing to bring part of our production back to our roots near the Chesapeake Bay. More than sixteen years after everything started, we are proud to announce the opening of our first domestic factory in the beautiful state of Maryland, where our brand’s dreams were born. Our new Glen Burnie factory in Anne Arundel County is our fourth manufacturing facility, but our first in the United States.

Equipped with a state-of-the art research and development center and laboratories for fragrance evaluation, fragrance stability testing, and burn testing, this facility will be used to produce an extensive range of filled vessel candles through standardized, automated production. With over 125,000 square feet of space, the space will soon also house a warehouse and operate a distribution center.Having a factory only a few miles away from our headquarters in Rockville, Maryland also allows us to strengthen collaboration between our creative team at the headquarters and research and development and production at the factory.

From the very beginning, Chesapeake Bay Candle has established a reputation as a consumer-inspired, design and fragrance driven company. Every home fragrance collection is anchored in a macro trend responding to current consumer attitudes and reflecting the latest trends in fragrance, color, design and texture relevant to the home industry. Macro trends are identified by our Product Development & Design team in Rockville through a complex, global research process including domestic and international trade show visits, store visits, as well as analysis of emerging trends in fashion, the arts, and pop culture. Our research is filtered into the creation of macro trends relevant to the world of home fragrance – culminating in trend-forward design that has earned our company a reputation as an undisputed style leader in the industry.

With a deep understanding of the magnificent power of scent, Chesapeake Bay Candle collections are grounded in our “Fragrance First” philosophy: fragrance design is always the first building block in every new product line. Our unique alliances with the best fragrance vendors in the U.S. and Europe allow us to bring sophisticated, multi-note scents to the market at affordable pricing. Our collections offer well-balanced fragrance assortments – typically representing all eight fragrance families and providing a captivating scent for every taste and personality. Once fragrance and color stories are finalized by our PD&D team in Rockville, the new product must go through a rigorous development & testing process to ensure it meets our premium quality standards and will entice the consumer when it hits the market.

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Adventure guide to the Chesapeake Bay

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