DerStandard: “The Sydor family brings lights from Ukraine to Vienna”

The candle manufacturer spreads a Christmas atmosphere in Vienna's city shopping mile. The operators, a couple from Lviv, fled Ukraine.

Not all candles are the same - this is clear to everyone who visits the Viennese candle factory for more than just a last-minute purchase. In the alley bar at the Vienna Fleischmarkt, in the middle of the city shopping mile, traditional lighting fixtures are offered in all colors, shapes and smells.

For example, there are palm-sized, orange candles in a fruit basket. They look like tangerines - and smell like them when they burn. Spread purple wax candles in small, square containers, once lit, bergamot bouquet. Large white pillars with golden Christmas tree decorations, on the other hand, smell of nothing. There are three wicks in them.

Engraved winter symbols from Ukraine

The medium-sized, yellow candles, for which two shelves are reserved right at the entrance, exude a fine beeswax aroma. “These are some of our most beautiful,” says Oksana Sydor, who runs the shop with her husband Andriy. She points out the decorations engraved in the wax: an Advent star, a goat, a spider and a diduch - a bundle of wheat - are winter symbols in Ukraine, where Oksana and Andriy Sydor come from.

The Sydors traveled to Vienna from Ukraine, specifically Lviv, in March this year, “because of the children,” says Oksana. The three are supposed to grow up far from the war, which began on February 24th with Russia's attack on the neighboring country. As the father of three minors, Andriy was exempt from military service and was able to accompany his relatives.

Daughter does video school courses from Lviv

Now, eight months later, the four-year-old daughter goes to a kindergarten in Vienna and the ten-year-old goes to a public school; The youngest, who is turning two, is still at home with his parents. The eldest follows the video courses at her school in Lviv at the same time. A return to Ukraine is definitely on track for the family. “But only when it is clear that the children will be safe there again,” says the mother. “Then when justice prevails again in Ukraine.”

The Sydors' move to Vienna was not an escape into the unknown, as many Ukrainian compatriots had to experience. Both adults knew Austria from several vacations in Tyrol. What's more: Oksana Sydor studied management and tourism at the private modular university in Vienna. A relative, an opera singer with a Viennese engagement, also lives here.

Learn German as quickly as possible

Nevertheless, the first few weeks in Austria were difficult, says Oksana Sydor. The sudden inaction after years of work would have been quite disorientating. “Until I decided to learn German as quickly as possible,” she says. She has now completed level B1.

Western Europe was also not new territory for her husband Andriy when the war broke out. For example, he learned to make candles in Haarlem, Netherlands.

That in turn had to do with the crisis that hit the world before the Russian war offensive: the corona pandemic. It tore the rug out from under the feet of the owner of the Lviv event agency Dik Art, because events stopped taking place from one day to the next.

Change the image of the candles

So the qualified physicist remembered a plan he had had for a long time. He opened a candle shop in a building in downtown Lviv and, a short time later, a café. He looked for materials and employees for candle making in his home country. It wasn't easy, he says: "Until now, candles in Ukraine had been used primarily in religious contexts." Placing them as a feel-good product, as a cozy source of light for private occasions, was new territory.

But the calculation worked out. Andriy Sydor found local artists and craftsmen who created candle designs and made candle holders. Oksana Sydor took over advertising and public relations.

Shop plan was created in Tyrol

With increasing success at home, the plan arose to set up a candle business in Vienna in 2021, during a stay in Tyrol. “We specifically thought about this in December a year ago. The war started at the end of February 2022,” says Andriy.

Even today, all of the candles that are for sale at the Vienna Meat Market are made in Ukraine. The materials for this, beeswax, soy and paraffin, come from all over the world. As a next step, the Sydors want to involve Austrian candle producers and sell their goods. “We want to become even more a part of Vienna,” says Oksana Sydor. Please contact us.