MARBLE FALLS — A manufacturer of scented candles has ceased operations at its local facility, which sometimes employed as many as 70 workers.
Company officials with Nature’s Finest Candles, 1707 Colt Circle, cite the local labor market, the rising cost of materials and pressure from the economy as leading factors in their decision.
“We just couldn’t manufacture in a cost-effective manner at our current volume, so we have opted to outsource the manufacturing of our candles to a plant in Marshall, Texas,” said Tim Wall, president and chief executive officer of Nature’s Finest Candles, headquartered in Plano. “They can make our candles for less of an expense than where we were. The good news is that we’re not outsourcing to China, just to East Texas.”
Nature’s Finest Candles has been manufacturing products in Marble Falls since 2001. The September closure of the factory translates to dozens of lost jobs for employees. Nature’s Finest Candles employed roughly 45 people, with company rosters swelling to as many as 70 during times of seasonal hiring.
“We’re going to definitely miss those people,” Wall said of his Marble Falls employees. “It was a very tough decision.”
Nature’s Finest Candles carries a wide variety of scented and decorative candles with as many as 200 different items made from 100 percent all-natural palm wax. According to company officials, about two-thirds of the company’s products were created at the Marble Falls plant and were distributed to 4,000 locations nationwide.
Wall added that while the performance in sales has been satisfactory since the company’s inception, the changes were necessary to maximize efficiency for the business.
“We went from zero to $8 million wholesale in a time span of five years. That translates to 16 million in sales retail. But to own and operate this factory, we needed about three to four times the volume in order to operate efficiently,” he said.
The decision to close the manufacturing facility was also prompted by factors such as the local labor market and pressure from the economy, Wall said.
“In Marble Falls throughout these last few years, it has not been a great labor market. We viewed it as tight labor. We also have some concerns about the economy. Candles are not generally considered necessary items, so we do predict sales to slow down,” he said.
Wall also said that this summer’s dramatic increases in the cost of oil-related products and materials, such as paraffin and palm wax, which is an alternative energy source used in candle production, factored into the decision to move the operation.
“There has been inflation in natural wax, too. The price increases came up very quickly, but the decreases don’t seem to be coming down as fast. That’s part of it.”
Nature’s Finest Candles is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rug Doctor Inc. Wall said that by operating in tandem with Rug Doctor, the company is able to reach more retailers who carry their products. Rug Doctor has wares available at 30,000 locations.
“We have a nationwide direct delivery infrastructure, and we wanted to leverage that with the other products that we could deliver to some of the same locations,” he said.
The closure of the manufacturing facility means the now-empty 75,000-square-foot building which previously housed operations is for sale. Wall said that the building is presently owned by the company.
“It was a tough decision. We have a really good crew down there,” added Wall, who said that severance packages were made available to all employees at the Marble Falls plant.
