My Candle Jar Supplier Has Frequent Stockouts — Should I Keep Several Months of Jar Inventory or Find a Second Compatible Supplier?

What a jar stockout really costs

When your jar is out of stock, the direct cost is not the jar: it is every sale and every committed order you cannot fill while you wait. Then come the indirect costs. You may substitute a jar you have not tested, which means a new fill weight, a different melt pool, possibly a wick that no longer suits, and labels that no longer fit. You may rush a reorder from another source at a worse price. And a range that disappears from your shop for six weeks loses customers who were ready to reorder.

Against that sits the cost of prevention: cash tied up in jars on a shelf, the space they take, the risk of breakage and dust in storage, and the risk of being stuck with stock if you change your design. Neither side is zero. The job is to spend the least prevention that covers the risk you actually face, and that starts with measuring the risk.

Measure the problem: a stockout log

"Frequent stockouts" is a feeling until it is a table. Every time your jar (or your colour of it) is unavailable, note the date it went out and the date it came back. After a few months you will know how often it happens, how long it lasts, and whether it clusters around festivals.

Size the buffer to the longest gap, not the average. A buffer built on the average of about 24 days would have run out 18 days before the jar came back after stockout 3, and that one fell before a festival. With only four data points, the longest observed gap is the honest planning figure; as the log grows, you can judge whether it was typical. Ask the supplier too: some can tell you whether a restock is on order, and a jar that has been out for months may have been discontinued, which is a different problem (see questions to ask before building a line around one jar).

Option 1: hold stock, sized to the longest gap

Safety stock against stockouts answers one question: how many jars will I use while my supplier is out? Safety stock = weekly jar use × longest stockout (weeks). It sits on top of the stock you normally cycle through; when it is used, rebuild it as soon as the jar is back. The routine side of inventory, how much to hold and when to reorder when the supplier is in stock but takes two to four weeks to restock, is a different formula, set out in the reorder-point guide.

The holding-cost column uses an illustrative 1.5% a month for what cash costs you, whether that is interest on borrowing or the return you give up elsewhere; use your own figure. Holding cost is not the only cost of stock. Jars in storage can chip if cartons are moved often, collect dust that needs cleaning before pouring, and become dead stock if you redesign. The larger the buffer, the more these matter.

Space is the other limit. Six hundred and fifty jars in their cartons is a real piece of floor in a home studio. If you cannot store the buffer somewhere dry and undisturbed, you cannot really hold it.

Option 2: qualify a second compatible jar

A second jar is compatible when you can pour it with your current recipe, wick and label and get a candle your customer cannot tell apart in use. That is four checks, in this order, because each is cheaper than the next and each can rule a candidate out.

Listings help you shortlist, not approve. CSI's jar listings state outer, "width" or unspecified diameters and brim or fill capacities, never an inside diameter, so two jars listed at "7 cm" can differ inside. Make the shortlist from listed height, width and capacity, then measure.

Qualifying a candidate in seven steps

Set against the 300-jar buffer (₹21,240.00), the buffer costs about 14.7 times as much as the kit, and the kit is spent once rather than parked on a shelf. Timing is the real cost: allow two to three weeks (our judgement) for delivery, cure and burn-downs, which is why you qualify before the next stockout, not during it.

Choosing: stock, second source, or both

With a log and a qualification plan, the choice is usually clear. This is our judgement, set out so you can disagree with a specific row.

Whether to run one jar across your whole range (fewer backups to qualify) or several is the one-jar-or-many guide and the SKU-reduction guide.

If CSI is your primary or your second source

On 26 September 2026, 20 of CSI's 72 container listings, 28%, were fully out of stock, including Pink Matte 200 ml, Frosted Brown, Orange Frosted, the Amber 150 g lidded jar, the Glass Jar With Bamboo Lid, the Amber and White Iridescent bamboo-lid jars, the 250 g and 300 g borosilicate jars and the Premium and Cute ceramic containers (the Green Iridescent bamboo-lid 300g jar and the Ceramic Jar for Candle Making are in stock). Two coloured 150 g listings, Black and Red, are in stock but still carry "(Deliveries Starting 5th Dec)" in their titles. If your line depends on one of our jars, everything in this guide applies to us: log our stockouts, hold a buffer to the longest gap, and consider qualifying a backup, including one from another supplier.

If you are looking for a second source and your current jar is a 200 ml, roughly 8 × 7 cm straight jar or a 150 g lidded apothecary-style jar, these are the CSI listings worth putting through the four checks. Send us your jar's measurements and we will tell you which is closest and whether it is in stock; the measuring and burn test are still yours to do.

Backup jars before Diwali, 8 November 2026

Diwali falls on 8 November 2026, 43 days after these prices were checked. In the worked log, the longest stockout fell before a festival, and that is when a stockout hurts most. If your season depends on one jar, secure the season's jars plus your buffer now, rather than relying on a restock in late October. Qualification takes two to three weeks, so a backup started today can still be approved before the festive pour; one started in mid-October cannot. Confirm stock and dispatch from Pune before you commit to customer dates.

Frequently asked questions