Soy Wax price increases & business decisions

[racolvin]

The Problem:

Lately there have been a few discussions here and other places about the rising price of soy wax that we use in our candles. This of course is tied to the rising prices of soy beans from the farm, since there are now more competing market forces vying for those same soy beans. There's lots of articles and links around for those, so I won't list them here.

At first I was shocked myself, to see the drastic rise in prices but then I decided to do something different: I broke out my calculator and my web browser

The Numbers:

Now I should say that my numbers are based purely on one sample distributor: Alabaster. Why? Because that's who I use and that's all that matters to me personally Feel free to go to your own suppliers website and do this same exercise...

J50 paraffin container wax now comes in a 65lb box. 65lbs is 1,040 ounces. Alabaster is currently charging $81 for this box, which breaks down to $0.078 per ounce of wax. This price does not include shipping of course, since those will vary widely depending on the destination.

GW464 soy container wax comes in a 50lb box. 50lbs is 800 ounces. Alabaster currently charges $61 for this box, which breaks down to $0.077 per ounce of wax. Same shipping disclaimer as above.

For comparison purposes, prior to their most recent price change, I was paying $0.06 per ounce for that same GW464 wax. This latest round of price increases would mean that my 16oz candle will now cost me $0.24 more to make - hardly a significant enough price increase to warrant a general panic in itself. It does however put my price into general parity with other candlemakers who use the J50 or other paraffin products. So in that sense, we're now all in the same boat, cost wise.

Does this affect you?

Of course your particular wax may have some other price variances, so check with your suppliers and do the math. Those of you who, like me, are fortunate enough to be close enough to your supplier to pick up your order and save yourself the shipping costs clearly have a pricing advantage over those who must have all their supplies - FO, glass, wax, etc - shipped to them. Sadly there is no help for this, it's just your cost of doing business. This wax price increase coupled with the shipping costs for that same wax might very well be significant enough to force you into some serious business questions.

While I admit that this sample is statistically insignificant, I would be willing to bet that the soy price per ounce vs. the paraffin price per ounce on similar purpose waxes from other suppliers is pretty close to this mark.

What can be done?

Not much I'm afraid

If you feel the prices will continue to rise and you have the spare funds, I would say "stock up" at the cheaper price.

If you have a supplier remotely close to you but you've had your supplies shipped anyway because "it's just too far to drive", reconsider. My supplier is more than 100 miles from me and it costs me $40 in gas to make the round trip in my truck. However, when I'm buying 20 cases of glass (with glass lids), 250lbs of wax, and another 10+lbs of FO, I'm saving a TON in shipping charges. It may be out of your way but taking a half day and making a round trip in a truck could save you a couple of hundred bucks.

Good night and good luck

[heirloomoriginals]

I am able to get my wax locally (from BW), so that does help. They also carry J223 and it was a bit more expensive when I first started with the soy. now there is only .01 difference. I am gonna try and buy at least 2 cases to get me through, since I won't be adding more than a few new scents until fall.

What a bad time to try and get business going!

Steph