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, in turn, give off a fine beeswax aroma. „These here are among our most beautiful,“ says Oksana Sydor, who runs the shop with her husband Andriy. She points to the decorations engraved in the wax: an Advent star, a goat, a spider, and a Diduch – a sheaf of wheat – are winter symbols in Ukraine, where Oksana and Andriy Sydor come from.

The Sydors travelled to Vienna from Ukraine, specifically from Lviv (Lemberg), in March this year, „for the sake of the children,“ says Oksana. The three are to grow up far from the war that began on February 24th with Russia’s invasion of the neighbouring country. As the father of three minors, Andriy was exempt from military service and was able to accompany his family.

Daughter does video school courses from Lviv

Well, eight months later, the four-year-old daughter attends kindergarten in Vienna, the ten-year-old attends a public school; the youngest, who is turning two, is still at home with the parents. The eldest is simultaneously following her school's video courses in Lviv. A return to Ukraine is very much part of the family's plan. „But only when it's clear that there's security for the children there again,“ says the mother. „Then, when justice prevails in Ukraine again.“

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 weeks in Austria were difficult, Oksana Sydor recounts. The sudden idleness after years of working had left her quite disoriented. „Until I decided to learn German as quickly as possible,“ she says. In the meantime, she has 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 physics graduate turned his mind to a long-held plan. He opened a candle shop in a building in Lviv’s city centre, and a little later, a café. He sought materials and staff for candle-making in his home country. It hadn’t been easy, he explains: „Candles had until then mainly been used in religious contexts in Ukraine.“ Marketing them as a feel-good product, as a cosy light source for private occasions, was uncharted 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 to open a candle shop in Vienna was conceived in 2021 during a stay in Tyrol. „We specifically considered it in December a year ago. Then the war began at the end of February 2022,“ says Andriy.

Even today, all the candles on sale at the Vienna Naschmarkt are made in Ukraine. However, the materials for them, 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 that way,“ says Oksana Sydor. Contact is requested.