Wholesale Fragrance Oils for Corporate Gift Manufacturers

Sizing a year by quarter

Corporate gift programmes follow the client's calendar: new-joiner kits through the year, client gifts at quarter-end, and a heavy October–December for Diwali and year-end. Start by writing down what the client expects to order each quarter, even roughly. The example below uses Indian financial-year quarters and three scents, split 40:30:30. It is illustrative, so replace it with your own programme.

The shape matters more than the total. October–December is 3.6 times July–September in this example. A manufacturer who holds the same stock all year either runs short in the peak or sits on excess in the quiet months. The next section plans for the shape. For the scent choice behind the three oils, see Fragrance Oils for Corporate Gifting Candles and the ranked list in Best Candle Fragrances for Corporate Gifting.

A rolling whole-kilo plan

Buying each quarter's exact need creates awkward pack mixes. 2.02 kg of Verbena is two kilos plus a pair of 15 g bottles at tester prices. The cleaner method is to buy whole kilos and carry the remainder forward. At the start of each quarter, you want to hold that quarter's expected use plus a buffer. Here the buffer is 25% of the quarter's use, a working assumption to adjust to how reliable your client's forecast is. You buy the whole kilos that close the gap.

You never buy an odd pack, you never start a quarter short, and the stock you carry rises into the peak and falls after it. The year ends with 1.57 kg of Verbena on the shelf, worth ₹7,400.96 at the kilo rate. That is not waste. It is the first part of next year's April–June order. For the general method of setting reorder points, see How to Set Reorder Levels for Candle Fragrance Oils. For how much inventory a manufacturer should carry, see How Much Fragrance Oil Inventory Should a Candle Manufacturer Keep?.

What the kilo is worth over a year

Here is the whole programme costed three ways: the oil actually used, priced at 100 g rates; the same oil at 1 kg rates; and what the rolling plan actually spends, which includes the stock carried into next year.

The ₹20,581.18 saving comes from choosing oils with real kilo breaks. That was deliberate. Of the 91 oils listing both sizes, only 24 save 5% or more at the kilo. Verbena (20.0%) and Eucalyptus Spearmint (13.3%) are among them, and Roasted Coffee saves a smaller 4.2%. A corporate programme built on flat-priced oils, such as Sandalwood or Blue Ocean, would save nothing by buying kilos, though the kilo would still simplify reordering. On this programme the oil works out at ₹66.02 per candle at kilo rates.

The peak quarter's full bill

October–December is where the cash goes. In this programme it is 900 gift jars at 200 g, and the full raw-material bill, bought at the start of the quarter, looks like this. Wax is Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 at ₹507.40 a kilo, with one Eco Thin C1 wick and one White Matte Glass Jar per candle.

The oil line here includes the buffer being built for the peak, so it is more than the quarter's use. Wax is the largest line, then oil, then jars. If cash is tight in the peak, the oil is not the place to economise, because the buffer is what protects the client relationship. Wax and jars are easier to split across the quarter, since they carry no scent-consistency risk. I Received a 1,000-Piece Corporate Candle Order — How Much Fragrance Oil Should I Order Without Overbuying? works through a single 1,000-piece corporate order without overbuying.

Every quarter, check these

A repeat programme runs on routine, and routine hides change. Five checks at the start of each quarter keep the candle the same and the costing honest.

When the client changes the scent mid-programme

It happens: a new marketing head, a rebrand, a request for something "more premium" for year-end. Treat a scent change as a new programme, not a tweak. Pour a sample from a 15 g tester, get written approval, and decide what happens to the stock of the old scent. Under the rolling plan the carried stock is modest, 1.57 kg of Verbena at year-end in this example, so the loss is manageable if the old scent can go into your own retail range or another client's order. That is one more reason to hold a buffer of about a quarter, not a year: a smaller buffer is also a smaller write-off when the brief changes.

Desk-candle programmes

Some programmes are 100 g desk candles for every employee rather than 200 g jars for clients. The same plan works at half the oil: 8 g per candle at 8%, so the 1,850-piece year above would need 15.54 kg of oil with allowance instead of 31.08 kg. At that scale a quiet quarter may need less than a kilo of each scent. Buy the kilo anyway for the oils with a real break, such as Verbena and Eucalyptus Spearmint, because the carried stock is used next quarter. For flat-priced oils, 500 g or 100 g packs cost the same per gram and keep less cash on the shelf. Best Fragrance Oils for Wedding Return-Gift Candles works through the small-format maths in detail for wedding return gifts, and the numbers carry straight across.

If you are consolidating several scents and suppliers into one programme, see How to Consolidate Fragrance Oil Purchasing With One Supplier. For the checklist to apply to any supplier before you commit a client to them, see Fragrance Oil Supplier for Wedding and Corporate Candle Manufacturers.

Frequently asked questions