How to Set Reorder Levels for Candle Fragrance Oils

The formula, part by part

Scheduled ordering — once a month, on the same day, as in a standing order — works well for steady lines. But a scent that sells faster than planned can run dry between scheduled orders. A reorder point fixes that. It is a level in grams, set per scent. Whenever stock falls to it, you order, whatever the calendar says. The level is chosen so that the oil left on the shelf covers the days until the delivery arrives, plus a margin.

Two of those five numbers are yours to decide or measure: daily usage and safety stock. One is simple arithmetic. The lead time is the one number that depends on someone else, and it is the one most often guessed. A reorder point built on a guessed lead time is a guess with decimals. So the method on this page is deliberate: say that the lead time is an assumption, ask for the real figure in writing, and replace the assumption as soon as your own order records allow. Record the date you order and the date the oil is on your bench; after four or five orders, the median of those gaps is your lead time. Monthly Fragrance Oil Supplier for Candle Manufacturers in India builds that record-keeping into a monthly routine.

Five scents, three assumed lead times

Here is the formula applied to a five-scent range of 200 g candles at an 8% load (16 g of oil each), with a 4% allowance for pour loss and test burns — a working assumption within the usual 3–5%. Safety stock is 7 days of usage for every scent. The three lead-time columns are assumptions chosen to show sensitivity, not CSI figures.

Each extra five days of lead time adds five days of usage to every reorder point: 305 g for Raat Ki Rani, 55 g for Spicy Raspberry. That is why the lead time matters so much more for best-sellers. A slow scent's reorder point barely moves; a fast one's moves by hundreds of grams. For the busiest scent, the difference between a 5-day and a 15-day assumption is 610 g of oil that has to be on the shelf at the moment you order, worth ₹4,133.04 at the kilo rate.

Three ways to size safety stock

The 7 days used above is the simplest method: a fixed number of days of cover. It is easy to explain and good enough for most small manufacturers. Two other methods use more information and can give a better number once you have it. Here are all three, worked for Raat Ki Rani:

The three answers are very different — 211 g, 427 g and 671 g — and that is the lesson. Max-minus-average plans for your busiest days coinciding with your slowest delivery, which is exactly what happens in the weeks before Diwali; it is the cautious choice for a festive best-seller. The statistical method is lean, because it assumes busy and quiet weeks average out, and it only earns trust once you have months of real weekly usage to measure the variation from. Fixed days sits in between and needs no data. Start with fixed days, switch best-sellers to max-minus-average for October and November, and consider the statistical method only when your records support it.

How much to order when you hit it

The reorder point says when. The reorder quantity says how much. The simplest good rule for fragrance is one month's usage rounded to whole packs, bought kilo-first: whole kilos, then the cheapest in-stock 500 g and 100 g finish. Because most CSI oils are priced within 1% per gram from 100 g to 1 kg, rounding to packs costs little. Here is the rule applied to the range:

Order more at a time and you reorder less often but hold more stock; order less and the reverse. For oils with a real kilo saving the trade-off tilts toward the kilo: Fallen Leaves is ₹4.25 a gram at 500 g and 1 kg against ₹4.72 at 100 g. For flat-priced oils, such as Spicy Raspberry, there is no price reason to order more than a month. How to Buy Candle Fragrance Oils in Bulk Every Month covers the pack-mix arithmetic in depth, and How Many Kg of Fragrance Oil Does a Small Candle Manufacturer Need Per Month? sizes the monthly kilos behind daily usage. If one supplier carries every scent on the list, How to Consolidate Fragrance Oil Purchasing With One Supplier explains how to keep a backup for the few that trigger most often.

Here are three oils from the range, each showing a different reorder situation: a fast best-seller whose reorder point moves a lot with lead time, a spice with a small kilo saving, and a seasonal scent whose 500 g matches the kilo rate.

Reorder levels at the bench

The people pouring candles should not need to weigh bottles and do division. Translate each reorder point into something visible. There are three practical ways, and most workshops use a mix:

The two-bin method is especially useful for best-sellers, because it makes the reserve physically untouchable until the order is placed. How to Avoid Running Out of Best-Selling Candle Fragrances builds on it with dual-size buffering for the scents that must never run out. For timing the big festive order itself, see When Should Candle Businesses Order Fragrance Oils for Diwali Production?.

Today's triggered orders

Here is the range checked against its reorder points today, with the 10-day lead time assumption. Any scent at or below its point is ordered now, one reorder quantity each.

The order is ₹17,209.00 for 2 scents. The others are above their points and wait; the table shows how many days of usage each has before it will trigger, which tells you roughly when to expect the next order. Figures exclude wax, wicks, jars, labour, packaging, freight and GST. If a triggered scent's reorder quantity is out of stock at 1 kg on the day, buy the same grams in smaller in-stock packs rather than waiting, and ask on WhatsApp about the restock. Reliable Bulk Fragrance Oil Supplier for Candle Businesses covers what to do when a production size is missing.

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