I Have a Commercial Candle Order — How Do I Build a Complete Procurement Plan Before I Start Manufacturing?
Aktie
How many units do I buy for? Not the order quantity. Order + approval samples + retained samples + replacement stock + burn-test units. On the 400-candle order below that is 434 units, an 8.5% uplift.
What wastage percentage should I use? Yours, measured. CSI publishes no wastage figure and this page will not invent one. Weigh the pitcher and melter empty, pour a known batch, weigh what is left behind, repeat over three batches — separately for wax and oil.
What about lead time? CSI publishes none, so no number appears here. Confirm it on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926 before accepting a client date. The binding constraint is usually printed packaging, which CSI does not supply at all.
- The straight answer
- Stage 1 — fix the basis, or nothing else is valid
- Stages 2–3 — the unit count that is not the order count
- Stages 4–5 — loss and safety stock, measured not copied
- Stages 6–7 — real packs, and the lines CSI does not sell
- Stages 8–10 — schedule, bench check, money
- The plan worked end to end
- FAQ
Stage 1 — fix the basis, or nothing else is valid
The first is buying materials before the fill weight is confirmed: the jar takes 118 g, not the 150 g you assumed, and you hold wax for 500 candles and glass for 400. The second is accepting a client date before lead time is known. The third is quoting before packaging is priced. Each is recoverable only by losing money. None is a manufacturing problem.
So the plan has a governing principle, and it is not about quantities. Every quantity downstream depends on two numbers that must be fixed first: the fill weight and the load convention. Change either after purchase and the order is wrong by a known multiple. If the wax is undecided, settle that first in how to verify wax quality before you buy.
The second number quietly destroys big orders. Fragrance load is a percentage — of what? On a 200 g candle at 8% of finished weight: 16 g of oil, 184 g of wax. At 8% of wax weight: 14.8 g and 185.2 g. The 1.2 g gap looks trivial — on 5,000 candles it is 5.9 kg of oil.
Stages 2 and 3 — the unit count that is not the order count
A 400-candle order is not a 400-candle purchase, and the gap is not a rounding allowance. It is a list of real units, each consuming a jar, a wick, wax and oil.
| Line | Units | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| Client order quantity | 400 | The only line that earns revenue |
| Approval samples | 6 | Sent before production for sign-off on scent, colour, label position and fill line. Build for two rounds, because there is usually a second |
| Retained samples | 10 | Kept by you, labelled by batch, never shipped. Mandatory if you ever want to investigate a complaint — without a retained unit it is one person's word against yours |
| Replacement stock | 12 | Breakage in transit, a lid that will not seat, a crooked label, one candle that sets badly. Held back, not made later |
| Burn-test units | 6 | Destroyed by definition. Full-life burns on the production formula, not on the sample batch |
| Units to manufacture | 434 | An 8.5% uplift on the order quantity |
Those five numbers scale with the order: six approval samples on 400 units is generous, on 5,000 it is negligent. Ten retained is two per batch across five batches, and complaint handling is unworkable without them, as scaling to 1,000 orders a month sets out.
Stage 3 is pure multiplication. On the worked basis — a 150 g fill at 8% of finished weight, 12 g of oil and 138 g of wax per candle — 434 units require:
| Material | Per candle | × 434 units | Calculated requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wax | 138 g | 59,892 g | 59.892 kg |
| Fragrance oil | 12 g | 5,208 g | 5.208 kg |
| Jar (with lid, where the jar includes one) | 1 | 434 | 434 jars |
| Wick | 1 | 434 | 434 wicks |
| Wick sticker | 1 | 434 | 434 stickers |
| Care sticker | 1 | 434 | 434 stickers |
| Dye, if the candle is coloured | your tested dose | — | Your figure, not a published one |
A kilogram of oil at 12 g per candle covers 83 candles, so 5.208 kg is five and a bit, and the "bit" decides the packs. Dye has no row because CSI publishes dye prices, not dosages — liquid dyes from ₹236 for 15 ml, dose by test.
Stages 4 and 5 — production loss and safety stock, measured rather than copied
CSI publishes no wastage percentage, and this plan will not invent one. Nor will it repeat the 3%, 5% or 10% figures circulating in maker groups: those came from other people's equipment. Transfer loss is measurable in an afternoon.
Stage 5 is safety stock, and one flat percentage across the bill of materials is the wrong model. Glass breaks and wax does not. A blanket 5% over-buys the cheap lines and under-buys the one that fails.
| Line | Failure mode | What cover costs | Buffer logic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wicks | Crooked set, sticker fails, wick pulled and re-set | ₹5.90 each at every pack size from 10 to 1,000 | Buy generously. Thin (C1) is flat at ₹5.90 whether you buy ten or a thousand, so cover is nearly free — sixty-six spare wicks cost ₹389.40 |
| Jars | Breakage in transit, chips, seconds, a lid that will not seat | The expensive reject — ₹21.24 to ₹354.00 each across the range | The line that most deserves a real buffer and where a reject is unusable. Inspect on arrival, before you pour into it |
| Wax | Does not break. Lost only to transfer film and scrap | ₹220.00/kg to ₹1,097.40/kg depending on wax | Needs a loss allowance, not a breakage buffer. Pack rounding usually supplies the cover free |
| Fragrance oil | Dosing loss; a scent reformulated after approval | ₹2,832.00/kg to ₹24,056.00/kg across the range | The costliest line to over-buy. Buffer it tightly and take the tail in the smaller pack where the per-gram price allows |
| Printed labels, boxes, inserts | Print error, colour drift, misaligned die-cut | Your own supplier's figure — CSI does not sell these | Carries your printer's minimum and their standard overage. Not a percentage you choose; a number you are quoted |
Eco Candle Wicks Thin (C1) are ₹5.90 per wick at 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 — no volume break and no penalty for spares; Thick (C2) is flat at ₹9.44 from 20 up. On a 434-unit build the 500-wick pack costs ₹389.40 more than counting to the unit. A jar buffer of the same generosity is real money, which is why it is argued from breakage history — and the wick family is chosen by test, as the wick guide shows.
Stages 6 and 7 — convert to packs that exist, then name the lines CSI does not sell
Stage 6 is where a requirement becomes a purchase order, and where most published candle calculators quietly lie: they round to a pack that does not exist. CSI's wax ladder is 500 g, 1 kg, 5 kg and 10 kg, with one exception: Natural Soy Pearl Wax also comes in 50 kg at ₹21,240.00. There is no 25 kg pack of anything. Fragrance oil stops at 1 kg. And jar packs vary by jar — 1, 5, 6, 10, 12, 20, 50 and 100 pieces, so there is no universal carton of 24.
| Wax | Pack ladder | ₹ / kg across the ladder | What buying bigger gets you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 | 500 g ₹260 · 1 kg ₹507.40 · 5 kg ₹2,537 · 10 kg ₹5,074 | ₹520.00 at 500 g, then flat ₹507.40 from 1 kg up | Fewer parcels, not a better rate. And note the 500 g pack is the dearest per kilogram on this wax, so buy the tail as a 1 kg, never as a 500 g |
| Luxury Soy Wax Chunks | 500 g ₹299 · 1 kg ₹599 · 5 kg ₹2,995 · 10 kg ₹5,999 | ₹598.00 · ₹599.00 · ₹599.00 · ₹599.90 | The 10 kg bag is ₹0.90/kg dearer than the 1 kg. On 62 kg that is ₹37,192 in 10 kg bags against ₹37,138 in 1 kg bags — you pay ₹54 for the convenience |
| Natural Soy Pearl Wax | 1 kg ₹450 · 5 kg ₹2,124 · 10 kg ₹4,248 · 50 kg ₹21,240 | ₹450.00 then ₹424.80 from 5 kg up | The one wax with a real volume break, and the only pack above 10 kg. Flat above 5 kg, so the 50 kg bag is a logistics decision, not a price one |
| Premium Coconut Soy CSI 468 | 500 g ₹325 · 1 kg ₹650 · 5 kg ₹3,185 · 10 kg ₹6,370 | ₹650.00 · ₹650.00 · ₹637.00 · ₹637.00 | A modest ₹13.00/kg break at 5 kg and above. Real, but small |
That table is the against-interest heart of Stage 6: on most CSI waxes, rounding up buys convenience rather than a rate, and on Luxury Soy Chunks it costs a little. Only Natural Soy Pearl Wax rewards volume, and even that stops at 5 kg — at 62 kg it is ₹26,388.00, or ₹425.61/kg, against ₹27,900.00 in sixty-two 1 kg packs.
Then Stage 7. Some lines on a commercial candle bill of materials are not CSI products at all: no standalone lids, no retail or gift boxes, no shipping cartons, no printed labels, no box inserts, no cushioning and no packing tape. A plan that omits them is worse than one that names the gap — and printed items carry the longest lead time and their own minimums, so they are often the binding constraint, not the wax. See also whether one supplier can cover everything and wholesale raw materials across India.
| Line | Who supplies it | What to ask them for |
|---|---|---|
| Lid — only where your jar does not include one | Your jar or hardware supplier | Nothing, if your jar ships with a lid. Several CSI jars do — the 150 g jar with golden lid and the salsa jar with its 63 mm lug cap are lidded products. Read the product title and never price a lid separately |
| Printed labels — front, back, base, batch code | Your printer | Unit price at your quantity, their minimum order, their standard overage, and their lead time. Usually the longest lead time on the whole plan |
| Retail or gift box | Your packaging supplier | Unit price, minimum, die or tooling cost if the shape is custom, and whether the first run carries a setup charge |
| Box insert or cradle | Your packaging supplier | Whether it holds the jar through a courier drop test. A gift box that does not is a breakage line, not a packaging line |
| Shipping carton, cushioning, tape | Your packaging supplier | Carton size that fits your box count, cushioning that survives transit, and tape. All outward freight consumables |
| Wick stickers and care stickers | CSI does supply these two | Wick Stickers at ₹100.00 per sheet of 40 · Candle Care Stickers Roll at ₹413.00 per 500 (1 inch) or ₹699.00 per 1,000 (1.5 inch) |
Stages 8, 9 and 10 — the schedule, the bench check and the money
A schedule is built backwards from the client's date, and the first honest thing is what this page will not give you. CSI publishes no dispatch time, no delivery time and no lead time, so no number appears here. Confirm it on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926.
| Step, latest to earliest | Duration | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Client delivery date | Fixed | The client. Everything else is derived from it |
| Outward transit to client | Your courier's figure | Your courier, for your route and your parcel weight |
| Pack, label, final QC | Your own throughput | You. Measure it on a sample of fifty rather than guessing |
| Cure | Your own cure window | The candle. Common practice for soy container candles is a cure of two to three weeks; establish yours by burn test and then hold it |
| Pour, in batches | Your batch size and count | You, and your melter capacity |
| Approval round, with a second round assumed | Client turnaround, twice | The client, which is why it is the most commonly underestimated line on the schedule |
| Printed packaging in hand | Your printer's lead time | Your printer. Usually the binding constraint |
| Raw materials in hand | Confirm on WhatsApp | Your suppliers. No number is published, so ask |
Two things gate it. Printed packaging — and a fragrance not in stock in the size you need on the day you need it. A 92-oil collection is deep, but depth is not simultaneity: availability across five scents in one size on one particular day is not something any supplier can guarantee in advance. Design the set so substitution survives — Sandalwood, Lavender and Citrus Lemon each have near neighbours; how early to order fragrance for Diwali covers the festive case.
Stage 9 is the cheapest stage and the most often skipped: a physical tick-list against stock on the bench, in the order production consumes it. Consumption order makes a shortage surface the day before the run rather than mid-run.
| Check | What "pass" means |
|---|---|
| 1 · Wax, weighed not counted | Total kilograms on the shelf meets the Stage 6 figure. Packs can be short; the scale settles it |
| 2 · Fragrance, weighed and decanted check | Every pack present, seals intact, and the scent confirmed against a retained reference from the approved batch |
| 3 · Jars, counted and inspected | Counted out of the carton, not assumed from it. Chips and seconds pulled out now, before wax goes in |
| 4 · Lids, where the jar has them | One per jar, and each one seats on a sample jar. A lid that does not seat is a reject on the finished candle |
| 5 · Wicks and wick stickers | Count to the Stage 5 figure including spares. Both lines, because one without the other stops the run |
| 6 · Dye | Enough for the full run at your tested dose, from one batch, so the colour does not drift mid-order |
| 7 · Printed labels and care stickers | Counted, and one applied to a sample jar to confirm position and adhesion before 400 go on |
| 8 · Boxes, inserts, cartons, tape | Present and drop-tested with a filled jar inside. The last line consumed and the easiest to discover missing too late |
| 9 · Equipment | Melter, pitcher, thermometer and scale working, and the scale checked against a known weight |
Stage 10 is the money. Payment terms are a commercial and contractual matter between you and your client. CSI publishes no guidance on them, and this page offers reasoning rather than a rule. The reasoning: your exposure is not the order value but the value of materials with no second use. Wax, standard wicks and a popular scent can be absorbed into your own range; a label printed with the client's logo, a bespoke box and a blend made only for them cannot. The more bespoke the order, the more of it sensibly sits funded before purchase — itemised by single-client line, in writing. How to price candles in India and whether candle making is profitable bear on taking the order at all.
The plan worked end to end on a real order
A 400-candle corporate gifting order. Single scent, lidded glass jar. The basis first, in words: fill weight 150 g, confirmed by pouring and weighing three jars from the pack, and the load convention is 8% of finished candle weight — 12 g of oil and 138 g of wax per candle. In CSI 464 that is 8.7% of wax weight, inside the stated "up to 10%" on either reading.
| Line | Requirement | Packs bought | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 | 59.892 kg, or 61.689 kg with 3% illustrative loss | 6 × 10 kg + 2 × 1 kg = 62 kg | ₹31,458.80 |
| Sandalwood Fragrance Oil | 5.208 kg, or 5.312 kg with 2% illustrative loss | 5 × 1 kg + 1 × 500 g = 5.5 kg | ₹27,647.40 |
| Clear Glass Jar with Golden Lid (150 g) | 434, or 469 with an 8% breakage buffer | 24 × pack of 20 = 480 jars, lids included | ₹45,312.00 |
| Eco Candle Wicks, Thin (C1) | 434, buffered generously because cover is flat-priced | 1 × pack of 500 = 500 wicks | ₹2,950.00 |
| Candle Wick Stickers | 480, matched to the jar count | 12 × sheet of 40 = 480 stickers | ₹1,200.00 |
| Candle Care Stickers Roll (1 inch) | 434 | 1 × pack of 500 | ₹413.00 |
| CSI subtotal | 434 units manufactured | Six CSI lines | ₹1,08,981.20 |
| Printed labels | 480 | Your printer | ₹______ |
| Retail or gift box | 412 shipped + spares | Your packaging supplier | ₹______ |
| Box insert or cradle | 412 | Your packaging supplier | ₹______ |
| Shipping cartons, cushioning, tape | Per your carton count | Your packaging supplier | ₹______ |
| Dye, if coloured | Your tested dose | Candle Dyes, from ₹236 / 15 ml | ₹______ |
Two details there are decisions the arithmetic made. The wax tail is a 1 kg pack, not a 500 g pack, because CSI 464's 500 g works out at ₹520.00/kg against ₹507.40/kg for every larger pack. The fragrance tail is a 500 g pack, for the opposite reason: Sandalwood's 500 g at ₹2,513.40 is exactly half its 1 kg, and a sixth kilogram would have cost ₹30,160.80 instead of ₹27,647.40.
Across the 400 saleable candles, ₹1,08,981.20 is ₹272.45 per candle — and that is the CSI portion only, not your cost per candle. It excludes labels, box, insert, carton, cushioning, tape, dye, freight and labour. Dividing by 434 gives ₹251.11, and that is the wrong denominator: samples, retained units and burn tests earn no revenue.
Run this on a live enquiry and it will sometimes show that the order is not worth taking at the price quoted — once samples, replacements, breakage, printing and freight are in, it buys turnover and costs capacity. Good for you, bad for us, still the right answer. It will also show that CSI supplies only part of this list: six lines are ours, five are somebody else's, and one of those five usually decides your delivery date. And a maker with a proper plan places fewer emergency top-up orders, which means we sell them less, not more. Earlier than a live order? How much fragrance oil a business needs and the complete raw material list.
CANDLEMAKINGSUPPLIESINDIA supplies raw materials, not finished candles, and not packaging. The commercially convenient version of this page would list boxes, labels, cartons and lids with prices beside them and hope you bought everything in one place. We do not sell them, so the page names the gap instead.
Every price and pack size here is taken from live CSI stock in September 2026 and links to the product page, where current pricing and specification take precedence. Every percentage used for production loss or safety stock is labelled as an illustration: CSI publishes no wastage figure. No lead time appears, because CSI publishes none, and no minimum order quantity, slab, rate card or credit term appears, because none exists.
For a quotation on specific SKUs and quantities, current stock, current lead time, GST invoicing or documentation, message us on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926.
Frequently asked questions
- The complete candle making raw material list
- How much fragrance oil does a candle business need?
- How to price candles in India in 2026
- How early should candle brands order fragrance oils for Diwali?
- Scaling to 1,000 orders a month
- Wholesale candle making raw materials across India
- Can I buy all my candle making materials from one supplier?
- How much does it actually cost to start a candle business in India?
Customer reviews: The six reviews at the top of this page are genuine, published Judge.me reviews left by CSI customers on their product pages. Names, star ratings, dates and products are as recorded by Judge.me, and every one shown is recorded by Judge.me as a verified buyer. Two longer reviews are shortened with an ellipsis and are otherwise unedited. Each describes the product named beneath it — Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464, Gilli Mitti (Patchouli) Fragrance Oil, Eco Candle Wicks, Clear Glass Jar with Golden Lid, Soy Pillar Wax and Tin Containers 85 g & 135 g respectively. None of them describes a procurement plan, and none is offered as evidence about one.
Figures verified September 2026. Wax: Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 at ₹260.00/500 g (₹520.00/kg), ₹507.40/1 kg, ₹2,537.00/5 kg and ₹5,074.00/10 kg — flat at ₹507.40/kg from 1 kg up. Luxury Soy Wax Chunks at ₹299.00/500 g, ₹599.00/1 kg, ₹2,995.00/5 kg and ₹5,999.00/10 kg (₹599.90/kg, ₹0.90/kg dearer than the 1 kg). Natural Soy Pearl Wax at ₹450.00/1 kg, ₹2,124.00/5 kg, ₹4,248.00/10 kg and ₹21,240.00/50 kg (₹424.80/kg from 5 kg up) — the only wax pack above 10 kg in the catalogue. Premium Coconut Soy CSI 468 at ₹325.00/500 g, ₹650.00/1 kg, ₹3,185.00/5 kg and ₹6,370.00/10 kg (₹637.00/kg from 5 kg). There is no 25 kg wax pack in the catalogue. Fragrance: Sandalwood Fragrance Oil at ₹2,513.40/500 g and ₹5,026.80/1 kg (₹5.0268/g at both); the fragrance ladder ends at 1 kg and no pack above it exists. Jars: Clear Glass Jar with Golden Lid (150 g) at ₹944.00/pack of 10 and ₹1,888.00/pack of 20, ₹94.40 each at both; 200 ml Salsa Glass Jar at ₹200.60/5 (₹40.12 each), ₹1,475.00/50 and ₹2,950.00/100 (₹29.50 each); jar pack sizes across the range are 1, 5, 6, 10, 12, 20, 50 and 100 pieces depending on the product, and there is no universal carton of 24. Wicks: Eco Candle Wicks Thin (C1) at ₹59.00/10, ₹118.00/20, ₹295.00/50, ₹590.00/100, ₹2,950.00/500 and ₹5,900.00/1,000 — flat at ₹5.90 per wick throughout; Thick (C2) flat at ₹9.44 across its in-stock packs from 20 upwards. Stickers: Candle Wick Stickers at ₹100.00 per sheet of 40; Candle Care Stickers Roll at ₹413.00 per 500 (1 inch) and ₹699.00 per 1,000 (1.5 inch). Dyes from ₹236.00/15 ml. Weighing scale ₹354.00, pen thermometer ₹354.00. Fragrance load ceilings are the wax manufacturers' stated formulation limits, not regulatory limits: Luxury Soy Wax Chunks up to 13% of total wax weight, Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 up to 10%, Premium Coconut Soy CSI 468 up to 13%; the other waxes in the range publish no ceiling. Arithmetic: 200 g candle at 8% of finished weight = 16 g oil + 184 g wax; at 8% of wax weight = 14.8 g oil + 185.2 g wax, a 1.2 g per-candle difference and 5.9 kg across 5,000 units. 20 g oil in 180 g wax = 11.1% of wax weight. 13% of wax weight on a 200 g candle = 23.01 g oil + 176.99 g wax = 11.5% of finished weight. Worked order: 150 g fill at 8% of finished weight = 12 g oil + 138 g wax; 400 + 6 + 10 + 12 + 6 = 434 units (8.5% uplift); 434 × 138 g = 59.892 kg wax and 434 × 12 g = 5.208 kg oil; illustrative 3% and 2% allowances give 61.689 kg and 5.312 kg. Purchase: 62 kg wax at ₹31,458.80, 5.5 kg oil at ₹27,647.40, 480 jars at ₹45,312.00, 500 wicks at ₹2,950.00, 480 wick stickers at ₹1,200.00, 500 care stickers at ₹413.00 — CSI subtotal ₹1,08,981.20, or ₹272.45 per saleable candle across 400 units, and that is the CSI portion only. The naive 400-unit comparison: 55 kg of wax for ₹27,907.00 yielding 53.35 kg poured at the same illustrative 3%, which is 386 candles. The 3% and 2% loss allowances and the 8% jar buffer are illustrations of the method, not CSI figures — CSI publishes no wastage or loss percentage. CSI publishes no lead time, no minimum order quantity, no quantity slab, no rate card and no credit term, and none is stated or implied anywhere on this page. CSI sells no standalone lids, retail or gift boxes, shipping cartons, printed labels, box inserts, cushioning or packing tape, and no price is given for any of them. Most jar families publish no fill capacity — pour and weigh. Diwali 2026 falls on 8 November. Prices, stock and specifications change — the linked product pages are always authoritative.