Light 4 Life Candles LLC to make specialty candles there starting this fall.
View full sizeThe Will & Baumer candle factory in Salina has been vacant since last year. A Canadian company, Light 4 Life Candles LLC, plans to buy the factory and begin candle making there later this year.A Canadian company is purchasing the vacant Will & Baumer Inc. plant in Salina and plans to use it to make specialty candles.
Light 4 Life Candles LLC, a subsidiary of a candle company in Scarborough, Ontario, plans to install high-speed machines that can produce “vessel-filled” candles — candles contained in glass jars — in high volume, Onondaga County officials said.
Production is set to begin this fall. The company estimates it will create 60 jobs at the site within three years and may look to hire former Will & Baumer employees, county officials said.
Will & Baumer ended 153 years of church-candle making in the Syracuse area last year when it moved to a new plant in Lewisburg, Tenn., near Nashville. At the time, it was the oldest manufacturer in Onondaga County. The move eliminated 25 local jobs.
The Will & Baumer property contains several buildings on a 11.5-acre site at 100 Buckley Road, near the intersection with Old Liverpool Road. A chimneyh in the rear of the property became a local landmark years ago when the company painted a giant candle on it.
Will & Baumer was founded in 1855 by Anton Will, a carpenter who moved to Syracuse from Germany. The Baumer name was added in 1896. The company started out in the basement of Will’s home and moved to a factory on Alvord Street in Syracuse in the late 1880s. It opened the Salina plan around 1910.
Will & Baumer specialized in religious candles, some of which were made by hand. Light 4 Life, on the other hand, plans to use highly automated equipment to make candles in high volume for the consumer market, county officials said.
The project represents a $3.49 million investmant for the company, including $1 million for equipment.
Light 4 Life has applied for state Empire Zone status, which, if granted, would make the plant eligible for state tax credits. Its application is scheduled to go before the county’s Zone Administration Board today and the county legislature on Tuesday. It then would need the state’s approval.
The project bucks a shrinking trend in the once-mighty candle industry in the Syracuse area.
The trend includes Will & Baumer’s departure last year and Emkay Candle’s notice earlier this month that it will lay off up to 38 of the 46 employees at at its factory at 617 Hiawatha Blvd. E. in Syracuse.
Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148.