The covid lockdowns were a challenging time for a lot of businesses, but for one family-run firm in north county Dublin, those dark days of 2020 and 2021 set them on the path to success.
The Little Wax Company in Balbriggan is run by Amy Herbert and her husband Marc. Amy – who was a stay-at-home-mum for nine years after an earlier career in corporate sales – got into making wax melt candles at the kitchen table, a hobby that she enjoyed with her eldest daughter Taighlor.
But once they dipped their toes into the online world – something Amy admits she knew very little about – things started to take off. Now they sell fragrances for the home including candles and diffusers as well as wax melts.
“Marc suggested that he set me up a website and get onto social media, which I wasn't on at the time, and we could actually make it a business,” she recalls.
“I built rapports with local, up-and-coming influencers and built friendships with a lot of them. And to be honest with you, that's what really helped the business in the early days – Instagram and the influencer world.
“And then, sure, shortly after that, covid struck.”
Something that jeopardised and in many cases destroyed other businesses happened to turbocharge this one. Amy puts it down to several reasons – for one thing, since just about everyone was spending more time at home, little luxuries like candles and fragrances surged in popularity.
Added to that, lots of us had more disposable income since our social lives were curtailed, with nothing much to spend it on other that treats for ourselves and gifts for others.
Plus, it turns out that Amy had found a niche. She started making wax melts herself in the first place because she had had to order them from the UK – there were no Irish suppliers. Now there was.
“There are loads of amazing candle brands, but with the wax melt in particular, which is our €5.95 hero product, I feel that there was a gap in the market,” she says. “I think that's why it exploded for us.”
As a kitchen table operation, the demand from consumers was such that Amy and Marc’s home was soon coming down with stock. “There was just stuff everywhere,” she says. “I think we had, at that stage, maybe over a thousand back orders that needed to go out. It was out of control.”
Marc came on board full-time, and in June 2020 The Little Wax Company found its first premises in Lusk. Before they knew it, though, they had to move again, to their current facility in Balbriggan. The rate of growth was dizzying.
“The business had grown to the point where we were not ordering packages anymore, not ordering pallets, we needed containers – and we'd nowhere to put the stock,” says Amy.
“We went on a massive hunt – again, during covid, which wasn't easy – to find us a bigger space. We eventually got very lucky and found the place we're in now, which was a 3,500 square foot warehouse.
“We decided the best thing for us to do was to build, inside that warehouse, our workshop, studio and warehouse space. We got in, I'd say, about three weeks before that container actually arrived.”
Amy has fine words for the support she received in the early days: “The Fingal Local Enterprise Office have been really supportive towards The Little Wax Company,” she says.
“We would recommend any small business or anyone looking to start a business to contact their local enterprise office.”
It was a drastic – and quick – transition from stay-at-home Mum to busy entrepreneur for Amy: “You can't explain how hard [it is] and how you're always switched on,” she says.
It was all hands on deck, as she made it a real family affair by adding her sister to the team, looking after customer care and fulfilment. Meanwhile Marc and Amy’s son and daughter both work part-time in the business.
“They don't have glamorous jobs in here, they've seen it all,” Amy says. “I'm hoping that they see how hard we work. It teaches them all the things my parents taught me about working hard as well.”
As we move out of the worst of the pandemic and straight into a cost-of-living crisis, sales have levelled off somewhat – naturally enough, as that level of growth just can’t be maintained. So now the task for Amy, Marc and their team is to keep things moving forward with new ideas and new ways of connecting with customers.
“Things have been challenging [since] things opened back up,” Amy admits. “We have to really be creative at the moment with offers and bundles.
“Trying to break through into retail is the biggest project we're working on at the moment. People are back in shops, so we have to have presence there.
“When things are good, it's great – you keep doing what you're doing. When things slow down, you get time to think and you have to get creative again. So we're in that space at the moment, which is exciting for us.”
