thinkr Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Hey everyone, Been a while since I've been on here and even back when I was lurking I didn't post often. I have an issue with warehousing/storage of candles that I'm hoping some of you that have grown rather large might be able to help me with. A little background: I've been in operation for a touch over two years now and have grown up to having about 30 wholesale accounts and sold a little over 25,000 candles. I primarily sell the 8oz tins and 6 months ago introduced a 10oz glass jar. In 2016 I anticipate adding melts/tarts to the line as well as another glass jar size. I made the too often mistake of having too many fragrance options and am in the process of lower from 32 options to 25 and attempting to maintain that. When I first started I decided to keep a stock in order to ship immediately rather than make as orders roll in. This has helped me grow, I'm at a point where I'm not sure the best route for storing candles waiting to go out to my wholesale partners. I do have large stackable tubs for those we make waiting to be placed on shelves. Do I buy large shelving units and box candles and put on shelf? Do I get a bunch of shelves and set them only about 6 inches a part an have one shelf dedicated to a fragrance of candle tins? Not really sure. I do have plenty of space so I can get pretty large with the shelving. Please feel free to hit me with questions to better get at the solution. Thank you for your help! Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fields Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Ok, What we do after several years of adjusting to needs. First, I assume the space is heated and cooled so that is not an issue? If not, you can't keep much stock on hand. We like you try to keep a large stock on hand so we can get orders out quickly. We have half of one warehouse devoted to storage. One side has shelves where singles jars and other products are stored. The other side is for full boxes of products. We have I guess 200 or so wholesale account; some order cases at a time. Others, including our website mailorders, order smaller than case-lots. This works for us. We also inventory the storage area every morning after pulling the orders we got from the previous day. That gives us a good idea about what we should pour/make that day. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 It depends on your model. Is the product labeled by account or is it your brand no matter the account?If it is by customer, I would store on shelves by customer. If it is your own brand, I would store by product type and then sku.One whole room in my house is now dedicated (the rest of the house including my basement for storage slowly looks as if it is BECOMING dedicated-ha!) to my wax business.The room is lined with these chrome commercial shelves. I do not make candles nor anything involving glass so the 350 pound per shelf weight limit is more than sufficient. You can certainly get shelves with a higher weight limit than mine.Congrats on your successful business. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkr Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 Thank you both for the quick reply. Yes, our space is temperature controlled so we can stockpile. David, on your shelves where you stack the candles do you stack one high or have them stock on top of each other? If they're on top of each other how do you keep them from falling over? Any chance you could share a photo? Karen, we have one label for our candles. The only time I do custom labels is for weddings and such and for those they preoder/pay so I know exactly how many to keep to the side. Do you find it time consuming to have to open the bins every time you need a candle out of it? Thanks!Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 I do not make candles. My whole business is wax melts. I prefer having them in opaque containers. Each bin contains 6-8 or so scents. It is simple to pop open those I need and fill orders. I do not wholesale (full time career in addition to my melts business means no for now) but if I did, I would also sell with my own branding.As of now, my wax business has grown to be a second full time job! My scent list is year round and 94 scents. That is considered a small-average scent list to online buyers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fields Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 We stack one high. Remind me and I will take a picture (after Christmas) and post for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkr Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 We stack one high. Remind me and I will take a picture (after Christmas) and post for you.You got it. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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