These days, Lawrence retailer Bob Werts’ celebrity is burning bright like a flame — a candle flame, that is.

The owner of Waxman Candles in downtown Lawrence was featured in Tuesday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal. The story — on page B4 of the national newspaper — highlighted the 33-year-old business and how it has been able to compete in a market that has become dominated by large manufacturers that produce candles at discount prices.

One of the reasons for the store’s success is that it has gained a good national reputation among candle aficionados. Werts hopes the Journal story, which reached about 1.8 million readers, will help solidify that national reputation and create new Internet sales.

“I think it is possible that it could provide us a boost,” Werts said. “How many candle burners read The Wall Street Journal, though, I don’t know.”

The national publicity comes at a good time for the store. Business hasn’t been burning as hot as it was during the 1990s when a candle craze swept across the nation.

“The ’90s was a real boom for the candle industry,” Werts said. “You saw them everywhere. They just caught fire.”

But in the past two years, Werts estimated that sales had dropped by about 25 percent from their peak of $700,000 per year in the 1990s.

“It is not that candles aren’t popular,” Werts said. “It is just there are so many of them out there. Everybody is selling them. They’re just overstocked.”

Bob Werts, owner of Waxman Candles, 609 Mass., works on a Christmas candle in the back of his store. Werts' store was featured Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper's article looked at how the Lawrence business was able to compete against larger candle companies.

Werts, though, said the store still was profitable and was weathering the downturn.

“It is tough right now, but since I don’t ride the booms and the busts of the industry; we’re fine,” Werts said. “Nobody has lost their job, and we’re all still doing what we want to do.”

The downturn has caused the company to put on hold possible expansion plans. Werts said he had been considering opening another store in the Midwest but now would take a wait-and-see approach. The company opened a store in 1996 in Chicago, its only location outside of Lawrence.

Werts thinks the industry will rise in the future, although he’s not predicting immediate improvement.

¢ 6News video: Local candle company gets national spotlight

“The consumption is still there,” Werts said. “People still love the ambiance of candlelight and fragrance. Candles are very simple, and in today’s highly complex society and world, simple pleasures are enjoyed.”

Plus, Werts said his store had been able to remain profitable because his candles stood out from the crowd. All are handmade, which Werts said allowed them to be more fragrant, burn longer and create less smoke than traditional machine-made candles.

Melanie Werts,17, daughter of owner Bob Werts, works on the fine details of a Christmas candle.

It also causes them to cost more. For example, according to the Journal’s article, a box of six, no-scent, white 3-inch by 6-inch pillar candles sells for $11.99 at Linens ‘N Things. A single 3-inch by 6-inch white pillar candle at Waxman sells for $9.50.

“There are still people who are willing to spend more to get more,” Werts said.

Loni Hosking, showroom manager at Waxman, said the store had built a national reputation, in part, because of former Kansas University students who live across the country and can’t find anything quite like a Waxman candle.

“I think once you have gone to school here and burned our candles for four years, you will come back and seek them out,” Hosking said. “We get lots of calls like that.”

Now, the store is waiting to see if the Journal article creates some new fans. Werts said it hadn’t yet produced unusually large numbers of visitors to the store’s Web site.

If the article doesn’t produce a boost, that’s fine too, he said.

“I don’t want to say I don’t care because I do care, but gaining national attention isn’t my focus,” Werts said. “I just do this because I love it. I’m not after the hype, but I’ll take it when I can get it.”

Lawrence High School seniors, Jenna Collins, left, and Meredith McCarter shop for candles at Waxman Candles, 609 Mass. The students said Wednesday that they enjoyed shopping at the store. Collins said her father worked at the store when he attended Kansas University.

Waxman Candles employee Jade Brown pulls votive candles from their molds. The longtime downtown Lawrence business was featured Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal.