CandleOutlet.com

Virginia Get Brands started in the early 1990s in Lynchburg, Virginia. A couple initially started it in a garage in their home. And then in 2017, were acquired by Newell Rubbermaid. They own a variety of different companies. Also owned by them is Yankee Candle Company. So that acquisition happened early this year. And we are now part of their conglomeration of companies. We manufacture all of our candles out of our Dillard facility in Forest, Virginia. And then all of the candles are transferred down to our warehouse facility here in Blair's. And then sent to all of our various customers, both in the United States and in various countries. So But you also distribute them to different stores and whatnot to sell them as well? That's correct. Okay. Is there a difference in prices or what's not between buying the candle directly from you or going to a store that you send it to? Yes, absolutely. We have our store here is approximately 6,000 square feet. We have a nearly perfect section which contains kind of bargain basement pricing. The candles themselves might not be the exact color or might have a label that's not quite right. Those candles are offered to the public at deeper discounted prices. And then all of our first quality product is offered at an everyday buy one get one. So instead of paying $24. 99 for a large candle, you would actually get two candles for that price. So basically it's 50% off where you would get them anywhere else and any other retailer nationwide. Okay. And when I was, when I first came here, I was told that there was a place that sold candles here. This place is easily about 10 times bigger than I thought it was for a start here. Yes. So can you just kind of tell me a little bit more about this entire facility? Oh. So the manufacturing and just everything that goes on here on a daily basis. Primarily this is a distribution warehouse. So all of the can't, the majority of the manufacturing is done in Forest, Virginia. All of our candles are made up there. This facility distributes all of the candles once they're finished. There is some light manufacturing completed in the warehouse here. But most of it is final pack out and shipments either to our, our B2B customers or to other, our distributors in other countries. And then so there's about 400,000 square feet of warehouse space here. We are in the old E toys building. And then in the front space, there's 20,000 square feet office space. The outlet store takes about 6,000 square feet of that particular office space. All right. And in this area particularly, is there We've had an outlet store for a n It was originally up in Lynchburg. And once we made the move to this warehouse location in 2012, once our lease was up in the Lynchburg area, we felt Just all of the traffic going back and forth, going to Smith Mountain Lake. Kind of the 29 area itself is quite busy. So we wanted to put the store here. We had available office space that were not utilizing. So we thought it was a good opportunity plus all of our candles since there are any warehouse here. It helped save some of the location costs. As you can imagine previously, we would move the candles down here and then move them back up to the outlet store. So now we can just pull them directly out of the warehouse as needed. Okay. And you said that So have there been any noticeable changes in the operations or anything Is it pretty much the same? Business as usual right now. Other than, Our location up in Lynchburg is looking for additional capacity and is actually having a job fair on Wednesday. Looking for new people to hire at the company. Okay. And I would probably have to ask our HR to get a concrete n Okay. It'll fluctuate. Obviously we have peak season and you've walked into us at one of our busiest times of the year. Christmas comes early in a candle factory. I would imagine that the busier times of year would be holidays. Actually, we start ramping up in June and then we'll slow down in October. So we ship all of our Christmas candles early. Okay. And are there any Previously Yankee, but now obviously not. But obviously the landscape has changed with the recent acquisition being part of Yankee candle now. They would have been considered one of our main competitors, but now we're in the same family of ownership. So that's a little. . . Kind of the unique thing about your candles. Obviously our candles, un So when you light them, they actually crackle when they burn. So they make a little crackling noise kind of Obviously not that loud. But that's kind of our own unique claim to fame. Thus the name Woodwick candle.