Chesapeake Bay Candle

choi

Thomas Heath, Immigrant from China Turns a Stroll through Bloomingdale's into a $60 Million Business. Washington Post, Oct 16, 2016.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/b ... 449e33c4_story.html

Quote:

"Chesapeake's founder and chief executive, Mei Xu 徐梅, 49 * * * Since the company's start two decades ago as an experiment in an Annapolis basement with wax poured into soup cans, Chesapeake Bay Candle 美通日用品（杭州）有限公司 has sold more than 350 million candles. The United States is its biggest market, followed by Europe and Asia.  The company employs 50 people at its Rockville headquarters in addition to the 80 in Glen Burnie [to make candles], from which it ships $15 million in candles. Factories in China and in Vietnam employ an additional 1,200 people.  U.S. sales are at $60 million. The cost of manufacturing each candle starts at about $2 and increases from there depending on the fragrance and size. Gross profit margin after cost of goods sold is in the neighborhood of $20 million. Chesapeake pays for labor, leases, overhead and insurance [besides tax naturally] from that amount. The bottom line [net profit] is a profit in the single-digit millions, by my estimate.

"Xu was born in Hangzhou * * * She went to boarding school[obviously in China] at age 12 to study diplomacy. She later studied at the prestigious Beijing Foreign Studies University, where she specialized in American studies and met her future husband, a geophysicist. They divorced but share ownership of the candle business. * * * [In 1989 for graduate study, she went to] University of Maryland, where she majored in journalism. She and her then-husband settled in Washington after graduation. During the week, she commuted to New York, where she worked exporting high-tech American-made medical devices to Chinese hospitals.  After her Bloomingdale's epiphany, she resigned from her New York job and moved back to Washington, hankering to start her own company. * * * The couple took [obviously Chinese-made]  fans, silk flowers, candles, calligraphy and several other categories of decorations to a wholesale gift show in North Carolina to test the waters with store owners.  It was the candles that sold, and a global business was born. * * * By Christmas 1994, Xu and her then-husband had sold $500,000 worth of candles.

"They made and sold their candles from China until 2008. That's when the United States was in the midst of a financial crisis, and American retailers demanded lower prices and a shorter lead time for putting candles on the shelves. * * * Chesapeake Candle pays a lot of taxes, she said.  She said her company is one of the few to start manufacturing in Maryland over the past 20 years. The Chinese immigrant is proud of that.

Note:
(a) Rockville, Maryland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockville,_Maryland
(seat of Montgomery County; in 1803 named as Rockville, derived from Rock Creek)
(b) Glen Burnie, Maryland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Burnie,_Maryland
(c) 欧巴马就教华裔企业家徐梅. 纽约在线, Jan 12, 2012
http://www.123nynews.com/html/142-48/48849.htm
("徐梅(Mei Xu)11日在白宫对欧巴马总统及白登副总统指出 * * * 欧巴马与白登11日就教企业家，如何将就业机会回流美国。 应邀与会的徐梅是与欧巴马及白登圆桌对话 ['InSourcing American Jobs]的13位将就业机会回流美国的企业家之一，也是唯一受邀的亚裔企业家。她表示，非常荣幸有机会在白宫与欧巴马及白登交换心得，她也很兴奋欧巴马政府高度重视如何将就业机会回流美国。 徐梅和丈夫王勇(David Wang)在1994年共同创立「千诗碧可蜡烛」(Chesapeake Bay Candle)品牌")