toledoblade.com --

Candle makers locally and nationally are enjoying the sweet smell of success, thanks to Americans' growing interest in all things fragrant.

The market for candles and home fragrances reached $8.4 billion last year, a 14 percent increase from the previous year, according to Unity Marketing Inc. in Stevens, Pa.

The firm found that 80 percent of all adult Americans purchased a home fragrance product in the past year, including candles and candle accessories, sprays, plug-ins, room fresheners, potpourris, air fresheners, and air purifiers.

"The popularity of these items really reflects more of how people are feeling about their homes," said Pam Danzinger, president and founder of Unity Marketing.

"People don't just want their homes to smell bland or to smell clean. They want fragrances that touch the emotions," she said.

Northwest Ohio is home to several candle-making companies, all of which report growth opportunities.

"We're happy that we're in the candle business," said J.P. Rady, owner of Curb's Candle Co., which has two area locations. "We feel the market has unlimited potential."

The National Candle Association said seven out of 10 American households use candles.

Prices range from 50 cents for a votive candle up to $75 for a large column candle, but specialty candles can cost as much as $200.

U.S. retail sales of candles are estimated at $2 billion annually.

The typical consumer spends $266 a year on all home fragrance products, with women ages 25 to 34 spending $340, the Unity Marketing report found.

"Women who work like to come home and light a candle for relaxation and to feel good," said Susan Stockman, a spokesman for Yankee Candle Co. Inc., a Massachusetts firm with 16,000 outlets and $550 million in sales last year.

"But now they want the home to be fragrant when they arrive home, so they're starting to use other kinds of products to help their homes to smell fresh and pretty all day."

Scented candles continue to be the first choice for home fragrance, but an expanding range of other products, including electric plug-ins, diffusers, scent disks, sprays, potpourri, incense, and bed linen spray are behind the rapid pace of the overall market, the Unity Market survey found.

Ms. Stockman said the emphasis on a fresh-smelling home at all times is another outgrowth of the nesting instinct that became pronounced after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"A lot of people associate fragrances with good memories and good times," said Cathy Thomas, co-owner of Lincoln Candle Co. just outside Convoy, Ohio in Van Wert County.

"We have one candle, for example, called Grandma's Kitchen and people will say, 'that does smell like what my grandma used to bake in the kitchen,' " Ms. Thomas said.

Lincoln Candle has manufactured candles for eight years and sells them through dealers.

It has 54 candle scents, and makes the candles from soy wax and other natural ingredients.

Ann Albright, owner of Swan Creek Candle Co., which has a large manufacturing operation in Swanton and seven retail locations, said,

"There's big growth in the alternative home fragrance products. That's why we're launching lots of that this summer for the wholesale business."

Contact Mary-Beth McLaughlin at
mmclaughlin@theblade.com
or 419-724-6199.

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