The Candle Pour expands to St. Petersburg's Edge district
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 17, 2021

The Candle Pour, a pour-your-own-candle shop that launched in Tampa in 2019, is expanding to St. Petersburg — and increasing its footprint in Hyde Park Village.

Husband-and-wife co-owners Misty and Dennis Akers have signed a lease for the 2,000-square-foot storefront at 1128 Central Ave. in St. Pete's Edge district. At the same time, the Akers are also expanding in Hyde Park Village, where they've signed a lease to move to a larger storefront along West Snow Circle. The West Snow Circle storefront is 1,650 square feet; their first location in Hyde Park is around 1,000 square feet.

The Edge district, known for its bars and restaurants, has the infrastructure to support The Candle Pour business model, Misty Akers said. There's a two-hour window after customers make their candles to allow the wax to set up and to choose their scents.

"We need support around us," she said. "We’re sending our customers out for two hours to eat, to shop, and we need neighbors we can send them to."

The new locations represent an investment of about $300,000 each, Misty Akers said, though that number could fluctuate before they begin construction.

Both new locations will include a room for private event space, Misty Akers said, which the first location didn't have. The Hyde Park Village location is temporarily closed, as a pop-up has taken over the former Candle Pour space and construction hasn't yet started on the larger storefront. But the Akers said they prioritized retaining their 13 employees, who've moved supplies and furniture to a warehouse and will be fulfilling online, wholesale and corporate orders until the new space is ready.

They're also doing Candle Pour pop-ups, including one at Armature Works in Tampa. When they reopen in Hyde Park, the Akers anticipating adding two employees. The St. Pete store will likely employ 10 to 15 people as well.

"The cost of replacing one of them is the cost of what we’d have to pay for the next six weeks," Dennis Akers said.