Why I started the Yorkshire Candle Company.
Hello, I’m James, I am the founder of our business, and I am here to tell you our story.
2014
In October 2014 I had an idea to combine fragrance and a communal love for outdoor spaces. Being from Sheffield I was brought up surrounded by a community who championed Henderson’s Relish, The Human League and a love for the city itself. It seemed ideal to combine fresh and clean fragrances which were inspired by the cities parks.
2016
In 2016 I moved into our first unit at the G4 Business Centre in Sheffield. I took as small space to keep our costs down but we had enough room to store our materials and have a desk and chair. At the start of this year our Production Manager Rob Bane joined the team and Rob is still with us now as the company grows. Rob oversees the procurement of raw materials, manages the production schedule, guides the production team and oversees inventory control.
2017
As we continued to grow, in 2017 Beth Herbert joined our team. Beth quickly became an integral team member and is now our Operations Manager. She can be credited with overseeing the general day to day running of the business but also assists in managing product development and organising our winter outreach via Christmas Markets and pop up shops.
2022
Along the road there have been a lot of others who have been part of our team and helped us to grow. These include Sharon, my mum who spent some time in 2022/2023 with The Yorkshire Candle Company and assisted bringing us to speed with our Health & Safety and Fire Safety documentation. Sharon is now the store manager of The Artist & The Candle Maker in Meadowhall shopping centre which is a shop jointly owned by The Yorkshire Candle Company and Luke Horton Art.
2024
Moving into 2024 I am continuing to invest into the future of our business. I have purchased our first commercial property which I’m hoping will be our team’s home for many years to come. As we work to become more efficient I have invested in an automatic labelling system which will label all of our products and allow our team to focus on the hands on aspect of candle production. This will allow us to offer our services to more customers and to improve our order efficiency.
This is not the end of our story, this is just how far long we are right now but we will keep writing for years to come. I am very grateful of our team and how far we have all come together. I am also very grateful to you for taking the time to read this story and for every single purchase that is made from our business. Thank you.