COVID AND THE CANDLE
COVID AND THE CANDLE
People have often asked us how the COVID19 Pandemic has affected the candle industry and where do we even begin!! The pandemic had a massive effect on us at Modern Candle from factory shutdowns, rising component costs, inflated freight costs, staff shortages, extended timelines on receiving components, material shortages and all the normal things that were hitting most every other industry around the globe. There have been some interesting, unexpected developments that have hit the candle/fragrance industries uniquely both positive and negative.
Let’s begin with the good stuff.
According to The National Candle Association, candle saleshave increased by 30% since the beginning of the pandemic and sales areexpected to continue to rise at a healthy pace until 2028. There were many reasons for the trend, oneobvious one was so many people were working from home and what better way toenjoy that than burning a scented candle. Another was that candle-making wasconsidered the biggest lockdown trend and platforms like TikTok gave way to a3,500% spike in searches for soy candle making kits (BUSINESSWIRE)
The things that were and are a pain.
Rising costs, shortages and timelines have been the mostdifficult part of the manufacturing side of the candle industry. At Modern Candle we have done everything wecan to minimize the effects of these issues on our customers but most of it isunavoidable. We have found that inpre-pandemic times a new project from development through to finished productwas about a 6-month process. Nowpost-pandemic, that can take up to a year and it’s costing more. Luckily, the consumer has adjusted to many ofthe changes, so it certainly hasn’t slowed down sales and while a little morepatience is needed, we are still able to deliver high quality, unique, andinnovative candles.
If we have all learned on thing during the pandemic, itis to expect the unexpected!
So here is one none of us saw coming, Anosmia. What is Anosmia you ask? The loss of smell. While not everyone losestheir sense of smell with COVID19, many people do and often don’t reallyrealize that their sense of smell hasn’t come completely back yet. I personally lost mine and because my job is infragrance, I was acutely aware of it and when it still wasn’t 100%.
There was a clear increase in negative reviews across manybrands and retailers that the candles “have no smell”. In fact, a professor of political scienceNicholas Beauchamp has written a full paper on the correlation in the uptick of“no smell” reviews and upticks in COVID19 cases. The Guardian has also stated that “There isindeed a correlation between COVID19 cases and the number of reviewscomplaining that Yankee Candles don’t have a smell” And the Telegraph alsoreported in October 2022 “Left a bad review of scented candles? You might haveCovid” Who would have thought!
