THE BUSINESS


Shining bright


Overseas sales are the next step for candle business WORDS PETER RANSCOMBE IMAGE ANGUS BLACKBURN


What started off as a hobby for Cheryl MacLean and her friend Natasha Skelton has turned into a thriving business that produces a quarter of a million candles each year. The pair launched Candle Shack in 2010 after spotting


a gap in the market for handmade candles that use natural ingredients. The business started in Arborfi eld, near Reading, but moved back up to Scotland when Cheryl’s husband, Duncan, retired from the army. Duncan and Cheryl turned the business from being a hobby


into a fully fl edged company, which now employs three staff and has moved to bigger premises four times in the past three years as it tries to cope with rising demand for its candles. Candle Shack makes branded products for companies including Kelly Hoppen and Turnell & Gigon, as well as selling


its own candles in around 15 independent shops and through its website. Cheryl and Duncan continue to make the candles, while Natasha and her husband, Jim, now act as the UK sales agents for Candle Shack. ‘We started off selling them to friends and our families and


then expanded into farmers’ markets,’ explains Cheryl. ‘A lot of our orders have come through referrals,’ adds


Duncan. ‘We’ve never done any marketing or advertising.’ Although the fi rm’s private-label candles are already sold in


50 countries, the next step for the business is to begin exporting its own products, with Germany and the Netherlands at the top of the fi rm’s hit list.


Find out more at www.candle-shack.co.uk WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 225


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