ITHACA, N.Y.—For Sunbeam Candles, enterprise is lit. The candle maker is pursuing plans for a renovated, expanded facility, and new jobs to go along with it.
The agency was launched in 2004 by firm president David Gould and moved to the city of Enfield six years later. In search of to carve out its area of interest within the candle trade, Sunbeam and its eco-friendly method have discovered a slice of the market.
The corporate makes beeswax candles by hand with gear powered by the corporate’s personal photo voltaic array and suppliers with 100% renewable vitality sources. It additionally sends shipments utilizing the US Carbon Impartial Program, foregoing using any plastic of their packing supplies. As one may determine for this eco-friendly if premium-priced method, the first consumers of its merchandise are 1,200 specialty pure meals and product shops throughout the nation.
Not solely is the agency eco-conscious, it’s additionally labor-conscious. Sunbeam is an authorized dwelling wage employer in Tompkins County, and shares 10% of its annual earnings with workers with not less than a yr of service to the corporate.
Enterprise for Sunbeam has been glowing and rising. The agency secured a contract to provide Entire Meals shops within the Northeastern United States and grew its wholesale buyer depend by 20% in 2021, with total gross sales growing 47%.
With these shiny enterprise prospects, the agency has outgrown its current 2,300 square-foot facility on Mecklenburg Street in Enfield, and is shifting ahead with plans to buy and renovate two 5,000 square-foot buildings at 127 and 129 Hornbook Street within the city of Danby to function its new, bigger manufacturing facility. Inside plans name for electrical upgrades, new insulation all through the buildings, a brand new septic system, workplace house renovations, new overhead doorways, a concrete pad between the buildings and a brand new, bigger photo voltaic panel array to serve the enterprise’s electrical energy wants. Complete renovation prices are estimated at $700,000.
Alongside the brand new digs comes new positions. Sunbeam is trying so as to add fifteen full-time workers over the subsequent three years to enhances its present 10-17 particular person roster (some positions are seasonal). As now, all positions can pay a dwelling wage at a minimal.
Together with its personal fairness, standard loans and an IAED low-interest enterprise improvement mortgage, the agency utilized for a tax break from the Tompkins County Industrial Growth Company to cut back a number of the bills of the growth undertaking. The requested exemptions embody a $14,955 property tax abatement to section out over seven years, a $24,000 gross sales tax exemption on the acquisition of supplies and gear, and a $1,375 mortgage submitting tax exemption, for a complete of $40,300 in tax incentives on a $700,000 undertaking estimated to have $5.1 million in native financial advantages over the seven-year interval of the property tax abatement.
For the reason that incentive package deal request is lower than $100,000, a public listening to was not required. The IDA permitted the inducement package deal unanimously at its June assembly.
The renovation plans are presently beneath assessment by the city of Danby’s Planning Board, which could have a gathering this night. A gap date for the Danby facility isn’t said within the accessible paperwork, however would prone to be someday this fall when the Entire Meals candle manufacturing will get underway.
