Glen Burnie Factory Brings Jobs to County

Jessup resident Christine Honaker worked for Danaher Tool Group for 22 years before the company moved its warehouse from Hanover to North Carolina and she was laid off in January.

In April, she said her former supervisor called her and said there was a new warehouse opening in Glen Burnie—and they were hiring.

“I came up here and put in an application … and kept bugging Danna [Hewick] until she finally hired me [in May],” Honaker said with a laugh. "I was lucky to get this job [so quickly]."

Doors opened at the Rockville-based Chesapeake Bay Candle warehouse in late May, establishing the 17-year-old company’s first domestic manufacturing company said Danna Hewick, director of administration.

“If you’re a good worker, it shows—they recognize that. I think that’s what Danna saw in me,” Honaker said.

Hewick said working hard is one of the common traits among people she’s hired, adding that very few had any experience working with candles.

“We train everybody,” she said. “We don’t expect them to know how to do what we do. I’m looking for hard workers.”

Honaker said she’s enjoyed the month she’s spent working for the company.

“They’ve already made me 'group leader,'” she said.

Since opening in May, the company has hired about 30 employees and eventually plans to fill 100 positions at the manufacturing factory, Hewick said, adding that about 75 to 80 percent of those who work at Chesapeake Bay Candle factory are from Anne Arundel County.

“Most of the applicants are in a 15- to 20-minute radius,” she said.

Hewick said she still is accepting applications for full- and part-time positions, with many of them being production jobs on the production line.

The company has three other manufacturing factories, with one in China and two in Vietnam. But husband-and-wife creators President Mei Xu and CEO David Wang, who started the company from their Annapolis basement in 1994, said they felt it was time to give back to the state they immigrated to in the 1990s.

“It took 17 years, and finally it took us home to the Chesapeake Bay,” Xu said Tuesday morning during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the factory on Dover Road.

Wang listed reasons why they chose to build the factory in the county and in Glen Burnie—including saving on shipping time and cost—but said one of the most important reasons was that it would benefit the brand.

“Chesapeake Bay Candle is made on the Chesapeake Bay. How nice is that?” Wang said.

County Executive John R. Leopold said he believed the county and state would see more manufacturing jobs come to the area with the opening of Chesapeake Bay Candle’s factory.

“It’s a powerful message to break the wall of skepticism [of manufacturing products] in this country,” he said. “It speaks to the future of manufacturing not only in Maryland, but in the country.”

To learn about open jobs at the Chesapeake Bay Candle warehouse email Hewick at hr@chesapeakebaycandle.com or visit chesapeakebaycandle.com/aboutus_careers.php.