Candle Co-Packer: Private Label Candles, Burn Tests, Quotes

A candle co-packer pours your candles, your wax, your fragrance at your load, in your vessel, with your label, so you can sell more candles than your stove can melt. Some offer private label: their stock scents and jars with your brand. The questions that matter are the ones a candle maker learns the hard way: a new pourer's wick and burn testing, since the same scent in a different wax or jar can tunnel or smoke; scent throw that matches your samples; the warning label your customers expect on every candle; holiday capacity, because co-packers book up for the fall, so a December run gets ordered by summer; and freight, since glass is heavy and breaks. In the example below, an Oʻahu candle maker comparing its 9 oz soy jar candles, about 300 a month, pays $5.78 a candle pouring them itself, $6.21 with a small co-packer, and $5.13 with a larger manufacturer whose minimum is more than six months of jars. Below is what candle co-packers do, the testing and timing questions, three quotes, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Candle co-packers pour your wax and fragrance into your vessel, or offer private label scents.
• Ask for burn tests with your wick, wax and jar before the first run.
• Match scent throw to a retained sample from each run.
• Every candle carries its warning label and your name.
• Book holiday runs early; co-packers fill up for the fall.
• Glass is heavy and breaks: freight and packing count.
• TaroStack keeps track of your jars and wax at the co-packer, as a site of its own. More below.

What candle co-packers do

They melt wax in large kettles, mix fragrance at a set load and temperature, wick and pour vessels on a line, cure, trim, lid, label and box. Most pour into vessels you supply or buy for you; many keep a catalog of stock scents for private label. A co-packer that pours to your recipe needs the wax type, fragrance supplier and load, wick series and size, and the vessel. What a co-packer is in general is in what is a co-packer, and how to find one in how to find a co-packer.

Testing, labels and timing

How a candle costs out is in how to price homemade candles, and shipping glass in how to ship candles in hot weather.

Three quotes compared

Lehua Glow, the made-up candle maker on Oʻahu I use in these examples, compares its 9 oz soy jar candles, about 300 a month at markets, online and in shops:

The small co-packer costs 43 cents a candle more, the freight of glass to Oʻahu, and gives back the pours, about 25 hours a month. The larger manufacturer saves 65 cents a candle, about $195 a month, for $9,700 out and more than six months of jars on the shelf; candles keep, so it's a cash question, and a run sized for November and December sells faster than the average month. What the business earns is in candle business plan.

What to settle before the first run

• The recipe: wax, fragrance and its load, wick series and size, vessel.
• Burn test results, and a retained sample from each run.
• Fill weight and declared net weight.
• Warning label, your label and lot code on every candle.
• The holiday calendar: order dates and delivery dates.

What a spec sheet holds is in product specification sheet.

Get the calculator

Download the candle co-packer quote calculator. One column for each quote and one for pouring it yourself: type the run you'd order, the minimum, the loss, the setup, the fee or your labor, the wax and fragrance, the jar and label, freight and storage, and the run's cost, the months it takes to sell at your sales a month, the storage while it sells, the cost of each good candle and the cash out before it sells fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Jars shipped from the glass supplier to the co-packer, fourteen scents in two places, and a holiday run arriving in October for shops that order in November: a spreadsheet doesn't know where any of it is.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps track of your jars, wax and candles at the co-packer, as a site of its own.

The co-packer as a site. The co-packer's premises can be a site, so the jars and fragrance you send are a transfer, shown in transit until they arrive, and the finished candles there are counted as yours. More than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.

Pours as batches. Each run is a batch with a lot, recording the fragrance lot it used, so a scent that throws weak leads to its batch and its supplier.

Supplies in days of cover. Jars, wax and fragrance come up on the reorder list in days of cover, against each supplier's lead time, so the glass for December is ordered in time.

Sites, transfers, recipes, batches and lots are on Standard at $99 a month for more than one site. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much does a candle co-packer cost?

In the example, $6.21 a 9 oz soy jar candle at a small co-packer and $5.13 at a larger manufacturer, including wax, fragrance, the jar and freight to Hawaii.

What is the minimum order for a candle co-packer?

In the example, 300 candles at a small co-packer and 2,000 at a larger manufacturer.

What's the difference between a candle co-packer and private label?

A co-packer pours your recipe; private label puts your brand on the maker's own scents and vessels.

When should I order holiday candles from a co-packer?

Early: co-packers fill up for the fall, so a December run gets booked by summer.