Makers Talk: Birgu Candles
Makers Talk is our new monthly series where candle makers tell us, in their own words, what it's really like to run their business. The wins, the surprises and the lessons learnt along the way. First up: Birgu Candlelight Company, who hand-pour their Malta-inspired candles in a studio shop set within the walls of the 16th-century Church of St. Lawrence in Birgu, Malta. We asked them three questions about selling internationally.
1. What's the biggest difference you've noticed between your home market and the countries you ship to?
The biggest difference for us is the cost and practicality of shipping, particularly to the UK.
Malta is a very small market, and as a tourist destination, we have a mixture of local customers and visitors. Many tourists visit our studio/shop in Birgu, buy from us while they're here, and then reorder online once they return home.
Most of our online orders are from Europe, although we've also fulfilled special-request orders for customers in the US, Canada and Australia.
The UK has become an especially important market. After we were featured on Malta: Jewel of the Med, we saw a rapid increase in UK sales and enquiries. Since the programme has aired in several parts of the world, we now receive overseas enquiries almost every day.
The interest is definitely there, but high shipping costs and customs charges can make the UK a challenging market. Customers may love the products and want to reorder, but additional costs can affect their decision.
Packaging is also extremely important when sending glass and wax products internationally. Everything needs to arrive safely and look just as good as it did when it left the workshop.
2. Which scents perform well at home but struggle abroad, or vice versa?
Our biggest sellers tend to be our Malta-inspired fragrances: Silent City with Peony Oud; Three Cities with Sweet Pea; Malta Knights with White Musk and Amber; Grand Master with Tobacco and Honey; and Grand Harbour with Rock Salt and Driftwood.
The same scents can appeal for completely different reasons. Someone buying in Malta might choose one because it reminds them of somewhere they live or have visited, while someone in the UK or elsewhere might buy it because it brings back memories of their holiday.
We haven't had to adapt a fragrance for a particular country. A strong sense of place seems to work very well internationally, as people enjoy buying a scent with a story behind it, especially if they've visited Malta or have a personal connection with the island.
We do keep an eye on what customers respond to. Fresh, clean and Mediterranean-style fragrances tend to sell well across different markets, while more unusual or specifically Maltese profiles may need a little more explanation.
3. How do you manage CLP, safety data sheets and multilingual labelling? And what caught you out the first time?
This is probably the area where we've learnt the most!
Because we manufacture our own candles and home fragrance products, we've had to become much more familiar with CLP, SDS information, fragrance documentation and labelling requirements than I ever expected when I started making candles.
The biggest lesson was that selling internationally isn't simply a case of putting something in a box and posting it. You have to consider the requirements of the destination market as well as your own.
We work from the relevant documentation for each fragrance and keep our product and safety information organised. We also check labelling requirements before expanding into a new market, rather than assuming that what works in Malta will automatically be acceptable elsewhere.
If we could give anyone starting out one piece of advice, it would be… don't leave compliance until after you've created the product! Build it into your product development and packaging from the beginning. It saves a lot of headaches later.
And, of course, international postage can be a whole adventure in itself!
Thanks to Birgu Candlelight Company for taking part. You can find them on Instagram and Facebook at @birgucandles.
Makers Talk is our series where candle makers share what they've learnt the hard way, so you don't have to. Know a maker with a story worth telling? Get in touch.
