I'm Getting Better Wholesale Prices on 100 Kg of Wax — How Many Months of Consumption Should I Have Before Ordering That Much?

The break-even in one line

Suppose you normally buy one month of wax at a time. Your stock runs from a full month down to zero, so on average you hold half a month. If you instead buy 100 kg, your stock runs from 100 kg down to zero over 100 ÷ your monthly use months, and on average you hold 50 kg. The extra stock you carry is (100 − monthly use) ÷ 2 kg, for the whole time the order lasts. Its cost each month is that extra stock's value × your holding rate.

Set the one-off saving equal to the total extra holding cost and the arithmetic simplifies neatly. If d is the discount on the big order and h is your holding rate per month, the order pays as long as the months of cover M satisfy:

The holding rate is the one number you must choose yourself, and it is where most makers go wrong by leaving it out. It has three parts. Cost of money: what the cash would earn or save elsewhere — the interest on a loan you could repay, or the margin on festive stock it could fund. Storage and handling: space, sacks, moving bags around, a dry shelf. Risk: wax spoiled by damp or heat, a formula change that strands the old wax, a price drop you miss. This page uses an example of 1.5% a month for money plus 1.0% for storage and risk, a total of 2.5% a month. Replace both with your own figures; they are illustrations, not market rates.

Two things jump out. First, small discounts do not stretch far. A 2% discount at a 2.5% holding rate justifies only 2.6 months of cover — you would need to use 38 kg a month before 100 kg made sense. Second, the holding rate matters as much as the discount. The same 6% stretches to 9.0 months if your money is cheap and storage is free, but only 4.4 months at 3.5%. That is why two makers can receive the same quote and both be right to answer differently.

100 kg against your monthly use

Here is the formula applied to a range of monthly wax use, pricing the wax as Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 at ₹507.40 a kilo and assuming a hypothetical 6% off for the 100 kg order (₹476.96 a kilo). The holding cost uses the example 2.5% a month. The candle column converts monthly wax into 200 g candles at 184 g of wax each.

At 10 kg a month, 100 kg is ten months of wax: the ₹3,044.40 discount is swamped by ₹5,365.76 of holding cost. At 20 kg a month the maths turns positive, but five months of wax on the floor is more than most workshops should hold. From about 30 kg a month the order is both profitable on paper and inside the four-month cap. At 50 kg a month and above it is comfortably worth taking, provided the wax is one you are not planning to change.

The scenario this page is built around sits at 30 kg a month, about 163 candles. A 100 kg order lasts 3.3 months. The discount saves ₹3,044.40. The extra holding cost at the example rate is ₹1,391.12, leaving ₹1,653.28 — real, but smaller than the headline discount suggests. At a 3.5% holding rate the net would be ₹1,096.83.

Why the practical cap is lower

Formula change. Most small brands adjust their wax, load or jar within their first year. Every such change strands wax bought for the old formula. The longer your cover, the more of it gets stranded. A four-month cap limits the damage to one order.

Storage conditions. Wax stores well when it is sealed, dry, and kept away from heat and sunlight, as a matter of general practice. Ten 10 kg bags in a warm room through an Indian summer is a different proposition from one bag on a shelf. Wax shelf life is not published in our data, so ask the supplier — including CSI on WhatsApp — before planning to hold any wax for many months, and use it first-in, first-out.

Seasonal cash. Wax is the largest single cash item in a candle order by weight. The cash tied up in a 100 kg order in September is cash not available for Diwali fragrances and jars, and Diwali 2026 falls on 8 November. A discount on wax that leaves you short of festive stock is a bad trade. My Candle Sales Double During Diwali — How Early Should I Start Increasing Wax, Fragrance Oil, Wick and Jar Inventory Before the Season? covers how early to build seasonal inventory.

Price movement. A big order locks today's price. That protects you if prices rise and costs you if they fall. The formula assumes prices stay flat, which is the neutral assumption; if you have reason to expect movement either way, adjust the holding rate rather than guessing.

Compare the quote with the listed packs

Before you run the formula, make sure the discount is real. A "wholesale price on 100 kg" is only a discount against what you would otherwise pay, which may already be a bulk rate. On CSI's listed packs:

So if you already buy Natural Soy Pearl Wax in 5 kg bags, a 100 kg order from the listed packs gives you no further per-kilo saving: ₹424.80 at 5 kg, 10 kg and 50 kg. If you buy 1 kg packs of it, moving to 5 kg captures the full 5.6% without any 100 kg commitment. For CSI 464 and Luxury Soy Wax Chunks the listed rate is flat, so any 100 kg discount would have to come from a quote. Ask for one on WhatsApp with your monthly use, and remember that no volume discount figure is published; do not plan around one until you have it in writing.

Deciding on a 100 kg order

Three waxes cover most of the 100 kg questions we see. Here they are with the numbers that matter for a large order.

If your use is below the threshold, the better route is almost always a steady rhythm of 10 kg bags sized to your consumption and delivery time — I'm Using 10 Kg of Soy Wax Every Month — How Much Should I Order at Once so I Save on Cost Without Holding Unnecessary Inventory? sets that order quantity, and I Use 50 Kg of Soy Wax Every Month and My Supplier Takes 10 Days to Deliver — At What Inventory Level Should I Reorder? sets the reorder level for a 50 kg-a-month workshop. If your use is growing toward the threshold, At What Monthly Candle Production Volume Should I Move from Retail-Sized Raw-Material Packs to Wholesale Purchasing? covers when to move from retail packs to quoted wholesale volumes overall, and A 25 Kg Wax Pack Is Cheaper per Kg than 10 Kg — How Do I Decide Whether the Savings Justify Spending More Cash Upfront? covers the cash side of a bigger bag.

One last check. The formula compares a big order with buying monthly. If you already hold two months of safety stock for good reasons — long delivery times, a festive peak — the baseline is two months, not one, and a 100 kg order adds less extra stock than the formula assumes. In that case, measure M from the stock you would hold anyway. The principle is unchanged: count every month the wax sits, and charge each one at your holding rate.

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