RichardLOZ

Some of the Candle Science oils that NCS has I quite like. I have called and spoken to CS and for whatever reason they just will not ship internationally. Perhaps if enough of us approach them they might reconsider. I don't use to many from there as we like to be different from other people, and lets face it, most of the small home based chandlers are buying from either ACS or NCS so everyone is doing the same damn thing. Talk about boring. Such is life.......

If you want to find out about palm wax and need a translator let me know my Hubby speaks fluent Indonesian/Malay.

We found out some time ago where ACS gets their palm wax from and already have pricing on that, but we have to bring in something like 18 tonne, which as you can imagine is somewhat expensive I am sure we will get there bit by bit, but I think glassware and perhaps FO's may be a good starting point.

and they tacked on a $5.00 packaging fee? Any of you know what that is? Is it new?

Hey there. Not new at all. For orders under a certain $ value (cant remember what that is at the moment) they tack this fee on. Robbing bastards if you ask me, and the bloody sooner we can co-op and bring larger quantities of stuff in, bypassing the local suppliers the better off we will all be!

Yeah I have also had a few batches of jars like that as well. I have heard back from the manufacturer in China again today. This is the manufacturer who supplies Gala glass in Adelaide, so quality should be pretty good, considering that Gala sell out before their shipment has even landed. Looking good so far. The only pricing I don't have yet is the wharf costs. I have the jar price, the shipping price to Sydney, GST would need to be added and any customs fees (no duty though as glass jars are duty free), along with whatever fees are charged on the wharf. How we get them from the dock to someone is also yet to be decided, but at the moment it is looking pretty good and I would estimate with the addition of the as yet unknown fees (rough guess taken) we could most likely land the 225 gram metra (status) jars for around 0.71c each AUD.

Yes Eric he did very well. Not sure that cycling is a huge sport down here, but I am sure that there will be a few ales being downed in some pubs, particularly up near where he hails from.

Typically I have not found the need to cure palm like you do soy. Having said that there are also some FO's in soy that I can pour today and burn tomorrow with no issues at all. I usually do like to have a least a few days to a week from pouring to selling, but that is me.

Ok in regards to the metro jars. I have just received a price ot of China with a MOQ of only 5000 pieces. I am currently gathering further information on shipping, customs clearance etc, but so far it looks to be a very viable option and we would not be exposed to a huge quantity. This is for the 225g metro jars, ie the mid size, so don't know if that is of any use to anyone. I don't have the funds to bring in myself, however if 3 or 4 of us got together, I reckon we could probably bring them in for < $1 / jar, which in itself is a considerable saving on what we are paying right now, as well as having a decent supply. Shipping time is stated as being approximately 20 days.

PM if interested and I will keep you up to date.

GG in the squares. You are totally insane....LOL. At least I had soy in them and that worked ok I will see how many I have and let you know.

Here is the latest version. Same font and text, now with rounded corners, which I think looks better. Adds about 4 cents / label but I think the look is worthwhile?

Comments?

Thanks for the nice comments We love country hence why a lot of our range is very mid west American prim which people here just don't get at all.

Expensive jars there at $5 each! Our exchange rate is better than even. This morning is was 1.08 AUD to 1 USD, so its great for us buying form over there right now. I just need to get a quote now on shipping cases of 464 over. $54.95 / case there, $100 / case here at the moment

I have used the squares from ACS in the past and found that they dont sell for us. I also definitely want jars with lids as they do hold the scent in better (thinking from a customer perspective now as we know better).

I still have about 24 square jars here which I will eventually pour with Frangipani to get rid of them. The small metros are "ok" I guess, although lack of availability is a major issue though.

In regards to the Ecoya jars. I bought one and burnt it as we would if testing, so basically controlled burns for a specific number of hours / inch. If I recall I was getting soot from about 1/3 into the burn and it just got worse from there. By the time I got to the end of the jar, it looked as through the jar was coloured black for the top 1/2 to 1 inch. Glass was not too hot to touch. Pretty disappointing for a supposed "major" player in the candle market here, but lets face it, most of the general public still don't know any better.

[bEGIN RANT]

Wow only took 2 months and a bit...LOL. Glad I got mine 2 months ago. I have just about given up on the Aussie suppliers due to their total lack of forward planning. Just look at the glass situation. NCS have been OOS of most items for at least 12 months now! I mean how damn crazy is that?

Its just like me knowing that I can sell 10,000 candles of a particular scent, but I only make 1000. I mean why would I do that, it's just bloody stupid.

I reckon we need to get an Aussie co-op sorted to bring in jars particularly, especially with the string Aussie $ at the moment. maybe we could then all have a receptacle to actually pour our lovely scented wax into for our wonderful customers to burn

[/END RANT]

waiting months and months for NCS to get them in. Every time I ring, they tell me ''3 or 4 weeks''....theve been telling me that since the start of the year!

That is pretty typical of Sydney. From what I recall they have not had any jar stock besides apothecary (which has been good for us as that is our main jar) for pretty much a year or more. Just like their oils. They discontinued Apples & maple Bourbon - reason - the supplier no longer carries it. Yeah right! So why can I go along to Candle Science and purchase it then?

I got them from ACS and was very happy with them.

Yeah I have some boxes of ACS metros's hopefully arriving this week. I swore I would NEVER use those damn jars as I HATE them, but if we are to compete against Ecoya we don't have too much choice as it seems like that is what people want. We have our country fans, however most shops just don't go for them, or else they wont fit into their decor range.

Have you burnt an Ecoya candle? I'm often tempted to buy one of the high priced candles just to see if the price is justified.

Yeah I have bought one at bloody $35.00 and it was crap! HT was ok. Burn was rubbish. Yes it burnt ok as far as not leaving any hang etc, although that would depend on how much you enjoy having black soot around the top of the jar. So much soot that the top inch of the jar may as well have been coloured black. Not something I would buy or burn again, but as we all know, some customers either don't care or don't know any better as that is what they are used to!

If you dont mind sharing, what does it work out per label to have them made up for you? I make my own clear labels but the solid colours look very nice.

From a printer in Melbourne the 6 x 4 labels work out at $55.00 / 1000. I am expecting a sample in the mail this week before I go ahead and order. We will get them done as per the picture and then either put the scent on the warning label, or just add another small scent label somewhere on the jar itself. If they take off and I can justify the price, perhaps I will then get the labels printed with the scent on the front, although without testing the market and considering we are starting with 12 scents (which as we all know will change), I figured that I didnt really want to get 12,000 labels printed without the market testing first

Hi Tammy

Start with your base cost and then go from there. Typically wholesale is 2 x cost, sometimes a little more depending on what you can command in your area. For us wholesale is about 2.2 x cost, markets is about 3.2 x cost and retail is 2 x wholesale. Using my example if your base cost was $4 (total cost to produce) wholesale would be $9 ($8.80 rounded up), at markets we would most likely sell for around $13 and retail would be $18.

It really depends on your product and what you can get for it. Some of ours we can get 3 x or 4 x cost at wholesale and others only about 1.8 x cost, so each product is different in the margins that we can achieve.

In the business thread somewhere I have uploaded an excel spreadsheet which will help you to work out all of your costs, from manufacturing through to wholesale / retail.

HTH

Yep, we get em down here as well. We have stopped making votives for a couple of reasons and this is one of them. I mean really what the hell do people think we are - magicians or something. But as Stella mentioned, it is not always the fault of the customer. Some chandlers just make totally outrageous claims on throw and also burn times. I have had some at markets that I have spoken to who claim 90 hours + from a 10 oz apothecary jar. Wow I wish I knew what their secret was to be able to get burn times of that length from 10 oz of wax.

Each person that buys from us (with the exception of regular customers who already know better) gets explained in great detail what results they may expect from the candle they are looking to purchase. What size room it will likely scent, burn time etc so on and so forth. So far so good, no complaints.

The only return we have ever had is from a woman who purchased a clamshell, then brought it back saying that the first square she burnt was lovely, however the second square she put in her burner would not melt at all. I mean WTF? Considering its from the exact same batch of wax, seems to me to be somewhat impossible. We did however exchange, went and placed a square in one of our burners, where it happily turned to liquid in a short amount of time. Perhaps it was just 1 square out of the six and she managed to get it

Could also be a bad batch of palm. Down here in Australia last year one of the suppliers had a batch that did this. Basically every candle poured stuck, and as a result they had a recall and a severe shortage of feather palm for a few months here. Might not be what is happening to you, but worth calling the supplier to see if anyone else has had any similar issues with it.

Thanks Tribal. If there were any other jar I could use though I would use it. I hate the damn metro / status jars and everyone bloody uses them. That in itself creates another issue as our wonderful suppliers here never have the damn things in stock! ACS has them at the moment, but NCS hasn't had them for I don't know how many months now. I mean really, if they know that they always sell out, then why not get a larger shipment in. Fixes supply and means they would most likely be able to get better pricing anyway. Doesn't make any sense to me? Oh well such is life and I guess we have to work with what we have hey

Thanks for your comments. Just not sure what to do about scent label as yet as we will have these labels printed, but I am not quite ready to have 1000 labels x 12 scents printed before I know how they will sell. We were going to the more "upmarket" look with these ones as we are looking to go up against Ecoya in the shops that we will be targeting. We can definitely beat them on price and quality, as I know what they wholesale their large metros for. Some of the stores we have spoken to as well are not happy with Ecoya's 5 price rises over the past 2 years, but I guess they have to keep their shareholders happy considering they are listed on the ASX.

Comments, suggestions....

Will be going on Status jars for those that "don't like" country. Never thought I would see the day that I use those jars as I detest them, however you have to give the people what they want. Also many of the stores here are after something more modern / simple and many we have approached have loved our candles, but said that they are just "too country" for the store and would not sell.

How I wish store owners would be just a little more adventurous.

We are going to have these printed, so will either have the scent on the warning label underneath of a small scent label either on back of or lid of jar. Still undecided on that part. These jars will be poured white, no colour at all to keep it simple and to set off the black label.

Like this one

Ah yes Bernadette, but it takes all types to make the world go round Now off to find my tin foil hat to stop the sun melting me....

You can lead a horse to water.....yada yada yada

Most people have no idea about the correct way to burn a candle. Some ask the burn time, and then say "but I don't get that" to which you start the questions.......how long did you burn for, did you trim the wick, etc etc. You already know what the answers will be before you even ask them. No wonder we all need insurance, there is a reason for that.....LOL

Yeah I need Redwood & Cedar, Key Lime Pie as well as Snow Fairy

We started off using frosted apothecary jars and had some issues.

1) The glass is definitely not as thick and was prone to cracking (in our experience, and from the same manufacturer)

2) Wet spots were much more prominent and visible in frosted glass.

Because of that we changed to clear and have not looked back since. Using soy, you will never get squeeky clean class unless you overwick, thereby causing greater heat stress in the glass and the likelihood of carbon build up on the top of the jar.

JMHO

I'm not too far for them myself, so didn't know how bad shipping further out would be. To me it didn't cost a whole lot. Sorry.

Yeah I am probably about 15,000 kms further from them than you are

My comment was more about why they are charging more than double what the stated USPS flat rate international charges are.....oh well....guess I will have to find them somewhere else..

They look ok, but there international shipping is a total ripoff.

International - Med Flat Rate $87.10

International - Large Flat Rate $115.60

That is double the normal INternational FR pricing...hmmmm