How Do I Compare Soy Wax Suppliers on Batch Consistency, Stock Availability, Pack Sizes, Shipping, Technical Information and Commercial Pricing?

A weighted scorecard where every score must name its evidence

The six things in the question — batch consistency, stock availability, pack sizes, shipping, technical information and commercial pricing — are the right six. The way to compare suppliers on them is a weighted scorecard, and the reason most scorecards fail is not the weights. It is that the scores are guessed. So this scorecard has one rule that matters more than the rest: every score must name the evidence behind it, and the strength of the evidence limits the score.

There are four kinds of evidence. P — published: a listed price, a listed pack size, a stated specification you can read and screenshot. M — measured by you: your own test candles, your delivery log, your weekly stock checks. A — asserted by the supplier: a claim in a message or a product description adjective. U — unknown. Measured evidence can score anywhere from 0 to 5. Assertions alone are capped at 3, because they have not been tested. Unknown scores 1 and is flagged, because an unknown risk is not a neutral one. Three of the six criteria — consistency, availability and shipping — can only ever be M, which means a fair scorecard cannot be finished on the day you request samples.

That is also the honest way to read a supplier's website, including ours. CSI publishes prices, pack sizes, stock status and, for some waxes, specifications. CSI publishes no lot numbers, consistency data or delivery times. On a scorecard those become U until you measure them — which is exactly what this page shows you how to do.

Set the weights before you look at any supplier

Weights express what matters to your business, so they must be set before any supplier is scored — otherwise they drift towards whichever supplier you already like. The example weights below suit a small commercial maker selling year-round and through the festive peak. A business with a lot of cash and storage space might weight pack sizes and pricing differently; one shipping to customers in summer might add a seventh criterion for heat behaviour, scored from the Indian heat qualification.

How the arithmetic works — a worked example with two imaginary suppliers

Here is the scorecard in action on two imaginary suppliers, X and Y, with example scores — they are not CSI and not real companies; the point is only the arithmetic. Each score (0–5) is multiplied by its weight; the weighted points are added; the total is divided by the maximum (500 points) and shown out of 100.

Supplier X has the best price and good consistency but poor availability and thin technical information; it totals 66.0. Supplier Y is dearer but steadier everywhere; it totals 71.0. On these weights, Y wins — and the scorecard tells you why: X's price advantage is outweighed by availability and information gaps. Change the weights and the answer can change, which is why weights come first. Two further rules keep the total honest: any criterion scored U is listed beside the total, and a supplier with a safety failure in testing is excluded before scoring, whatever its total.

Filling the published half for CSI 464 and CSI 468

To show the method on real products, here is the published evidence for two CSI container waxes, re-checked on 1 October 2026. These are facts about what is listed, not scores of how either wax performs. The measured rows are left for you, and there is no total: a pre-test total would mostly be unknowns, and adding it up would give it a precision it does not have. This page does not say one CSI wax is a better supplier choice than the other.

One snapshot of stock status is weak evidence of availability — it tells you about one day. CSI's Soy Wax 464 Pellets listing was out of stock in every size on the same re-check, which is a reminder that stock-outs happen to any supplier and why availability has to be logged over weeks. Approving a backup supplier is how you reduce the weight that criterion has to carry.

Measuring the other half: consistency, availability and shipping

The M criteria need a short programme, run in parallel over about two months. None of it is expensive; all of it needs discipline.

Scoring commercial pricing properly

Commercial pricing is the one criterion people think they can score at a glance, and it is the one most often scored wrong. Score it on cost per candle at the pack size you will buy, not on the headline price. The table shows CSI 464 and CSI 468 at every listed pack, converted to per-kilo and to material cost per 50 g heart-jar candle with Mango Coconut at the 1 kg rate (₹3.96 a gram), a ₹5.90 wick and the jar at its 10-pack rate (₹45.00), excluding labour, packaging, freight and GST.

Two things stand out. First, in a 50 g candle the wax is a small part of the material cost — 46 g of wax is ₹23.34 in CSI 464 and ₹29.30 in CSI 468 at their best rates, against a ₹45.00 jar. A large per-kilo difference becomes a small per-candle one in small formats, which is a reason not to over-weight pricing for small candles. Second, pack size changes the per-kilo rate in different directions for different waxes: CSI 464's 500 g bag is dearer per kilo than its 1 kg bag; CSI 468's 5 kg bag is cheaper per kilo than its 1 kg bag; Luxury Soy Wax Chunks' 10 kg bag is dearer per kilo than its 5 kg. Score pricing at the pack you will actually buy. Lowest cost per kg or per saleable candle is the full argument.

The priced bench and delivery checks

The bench covers 4 candles per wax at 46 g of wax — 184 g, 193.2 g with a 5% allowance — and 8 candles of oil at 4 g, 33.6 g with the allowance. Each later delivery check uses 238 g of the delivered wax (from the bag you bought anyway) and 12.6 g of oil. Wax prices are CSI live pricing, re-checked 1 October 2026; oil CSI live pricing, pulled 24 September 2026; wicks & jars verified 10 September 2026; heart jars from the 25 September catalogue pull.

The decision rule

If CSI 464 leads after measurement, the purchase that matches its pricing score is the 1 kg bag or larger — ₹507.40 a kilo from 1 kg — so a month's wax for a business pouring, say, 2,000 heart-jar candles (an example) is 92.0 kg, bought as 9 × 10 kg + 1 × 5 kg at ₹48,203.00 with a 3% allowance. If CSI 468 leads, buy it in 5 kg or 10 kg bags, where its rate falls to ₹637.00: the same month is 9 × 10 kg + 1 × 5 kg at ₹60,515.00. Re-score every six months, or whenever a delivery check says "different".

Related questions in this cluster

The scorecard brings together evidence produced elsewhere in the cluster: the rupee value of each hidden factor to justify the weights, lot numbers and the delivery record for consistency, a backup supplier for availability, and the standard test candle for the bench gate. For a two-supplier version focused on regular 100 kg orders, see choosing between two similar samples; the whole process sits in the selection and approval system.

Frequently asked questions