I Received an Inquiry for 100 Candles but Normally Make Only 20 at a Time — How Should I Calculate Raw Materials Before Quoting the Customer?

Why five of your usual batches is the wrong list

Most makers who pour 20 at a time have a shopping list they no longer think about: a few 100 g bottles of oil, four 1 kg bags of wax, a pack of 20 wicks, four packs of five jars. For 20 candles of 200 g at 8% that list is 3 × 100 g (₹560.00) + 2 × 15 g (₹105.02) of oil (₹1,890.04), 4 × 1 kg (₹599.00) of wax (₹2,396.00), 20 wicks (₹118.00) and 20 jars (₹1,416.00) — ₹5,820.04. It carries its own slack: 330 g of oil for 320 g of need, 4 kg of wax for 3.68 kg of need.

When the 100-candle inquiry lands, the tempting move is to buy that list five times. It costs ₹29,100.20, which looks ₹1,306.80 cheaper than the ₹30,407.00 list built from the order. It isn't cheaper; it is smaller. It covers exactly 100 candles with nothing for approval candles, burn tests, pour loss or a cracked jar. The moment you add those, it is short on every line — and the oil in it costs ₹5.73 a gram, because it buys fifteen-gram testers ten times over, against ₹5.46 a gram on the order list.

The biggest difference is fragrance. Five small oil buys of 3 × 100 g (₹560.00) + 2 × 15 g (₹105.02) put ₹9,450.20 into 1,650 g of oil — less than the 1,747.2 g the order needs once tests and allowance are counted — paying the 15 g tester premium ten times. The order list buys 1,750 g for ₹9,555.00: 100 g more oil for ₹104.80 more. Wax runs the other way: five lots of four 1 kg bags is 20 kg, slightly less than the 20.09 kg the order needs once test candles and allowance are in. The ×5 list would leave you short on wax, oil, jars and wicks at once, having paid tester prices for part of the oil. That is the pattern to expect whenever you scale a list instead of a recipe.

Step 1 — the one-candle bill of materials

Everything starts with one finished candle weighed on a scale, not a jar's printed volume. For this order the customer chose a 200 g candle in a White Matte Glass Jar, scented with Bergamot Amber at 8%. Fragrance load is a share of the total finished weight, so oil = 200 × 0.08 = 16 g and wax = 200 − 16 = 184 g. Luxury Soy Wax Chunks are rated up to 13% fragrance load (the wax maker's stated formulation maximum, not a regulatory limit), so 8% sits comfortably inside it.

That ₹273.91 is a rate, not a purchase. It uses the 1 kg per-gram price for oil and wax as if you could buy exactly 16 g and 184 g. You can't, and for a small order the difference between rate and outlay is the single biggest source of quoting error. Keep the rate for the quote; keep the pack list for the purchase. The full cost of a 200 g soy candle adds lid, label and packaging lines to this table if your order needs them.

Step 2 and 3 — units and allowances

Units are the candles you will physically pour. For a first order of this size that means the 100 sellable candles, plus 4 extra: two approval candles (one for the customer, one you keep as the reference) and two burn-test candles you will burn down to check wick and throw in the customer's jar. 104 units in total. If the customer already approved a sample from an earlier batch, you may need only two.

The allowance covers what never reaches a jar: wax left in the jug, drips, a few grams of oil clinging to the bottle and the beaker, a candle you reject for a sunk top or off-centre wick. Plan 3–5% extra for pour loss and test burns — a working assumption, not a measured CSI figure. We use 5% here because the maker is moving from 20-candle batches to 100, and the first larger run is where loss is highest. On a repeat order you have run before, 3% is usually enough.

Jars and wicks get a count allowance, not a percentage. A jar either breaks or it doesn't, and two spares on 104 is proportionate for glass you unpack and handle yourself. Wicks are cheap enough that four spare costs less than one re-pour. Oil and wax get a percentage because their loss is continuous — a film in every jug, not a whole candle at a time.

Agree the load before you quote. Moving from 8% to 10% adds 436.8 g of oil to this order and changes the oil bill from ₹9,555.00 to ₹11,994.00, while wax falls only slightly. If the customer's sample was poured at 10%, production has to be poured at 10% too. The wedding-order post covers how much extra oil to hold when the fragrance itself is still being tested.

Step 4 — rounding to real packs

Now, and only now, turn grams into things you can put in a cart. The rule is simple: the cheapest combination of in-stock packs that covers the need, with the fewest packs when two combinations cost almost the same. For Bergamot Amber the in-stock sizes are 15 g (₹105.02), 50 g (₹280.00), 100 g (₹560.00), 500 g (₹2,718.00) and 1 kg (₹5,437.00). For 1,747.2 g that works out to 1 × 1 kg (₹5,437.00) + 1 × 500 g (₹2,718.00) + 2 × 100 g (₹560.00) + 1 × 50 g (₹280.00): 1,750 g for ₹9,555.00.

Wax works the same way. Luxury Soy Wax Chunks come in 500 g (₹299.00), 1 kg (₹599.00), 5 kg (₹2,995.00) and 10 kg (₹5,999.00). For 20.09 kg: 2 × 10 kg (₹5,999.00) + 1 × 500 g (₹299.00) = ₹12,297.00. Four 5 kg bags plus a 500 g bag would cost ₹12,279.00, eighteen rupees less, because the 10 kg bag is ₹599.90 a kilo against ₹599.00 for the 5 kg. Buy whichever you prefer to store. There is no bulk break on this wax at any listed size.

If the customer's oil were one with a real 1 kg price break, the rounding would change. British Rose is ₹3.42/g at 100 g and ₹3.07/g at 1 kg, 10.3% cheaper. For the same 1,747.2 g need, the cheapest British Rose list is 1 × 1 kg (₹3,068.00) + 1 × 500 g (₹1,593.00) + 2 × 100 g (₹342.20) + 1 × 50 g (₹212.40) = ₹5,557.80. For most oils, though, the per-gram line is flat above 100 g, and rounding up buys stock, not savings. The 2,000-candle post shows what happens when the need goes beyond the 1 kg listing altogether.

Building the quote from the right number

The order consumes 1,747.2 g of oil and 20.09 kg of wax. At the prices you paid, that is ₹9,539.71 of oil and ₹12,052.74 of wax. The rest — 2.8 g of oil and 407.2 g of wax, worth ₹259.55 — is still sitting on your shelf when the order ships. Charge the customer for the first number, not the second. If you load the leftover into this quote, you will be dearer than a competitor who didn't, and you will still own the stock.

The practical shortcut for a small order is to quote on the total outlay spread across the sellable candles, ₹30,407.00 ÷ 100 = ₹304.07, and treat the leftover as a cushion. That spreads the test candles, allowance and spares across the 100 candles you are paid for, which is correct: the customer is the reason you poured them. Then add the costs that are not in CSI's catalogue.

Gross margin is profit as a share of the selling price; markup is profit as a share of cost. The same ₹ profit gives two different percentages, and mixing them up is how quotes go wrong. Courier, payment fees and GST are not in the table because they depend on how this customer pays and receives the order; add them as your own lines. We don't state tax rates on this page — check them with your accountant. Quantity-discount maths for 100, 500 and 1,000 pieces covers what to do when the customer asks for a lower price for more.

Pouring 100 when you usually pour 20

You don't have to change how you pour. You have to change how you prepare. Five batches of 20 still work; each batch is 320 g of oil and 3.68 kg of wax, plus its share of the allowance. What changes is that the materials for all five must be in the building before you start the first, so the fifth batch is poured from the same oil bottle and the same wax as the first. A mid-order restock is where colour and scent drift creep in. Keeping batches identical goes deeper on that.

Pour the test and approval candles in batch one and burn one of them while the other batches cure. If the burn test shows a wick problem, you find out with 80 candles still to pour, not after all 100 are boxed. Keep the reference candle unlit and labelled with the batch date: if the customer later says the scent is weaker than the sample, you can compare like for like.

The materials in this order

The three picks below are the scenario's own materials, with every in-stock size priced so you can redo the rounding for a different quantity.

Five mistakes that turn a good quote into a loss

Quoting before weighing. A jar sold as holding 200 g may take 185 g at your fill line or 210 g if you fill to the shoulder. Quote on the weighed figure. Forgetting the test candles. Four candles is 4% of this order; ignore them and your allowance is gone before you start. Pricing oil at the 15 g rate. If your only reference is the tester you bought, Bergamot Amber looks like ₹7.00 a gram, not ₹5.44, and you over-quote by ₹25.03 a candle.

Loading the leftover into the price. ₹259.55 of oil and wax outlives this order; spread it across 100 candles and you add about ₹2.60 to every one. Assuming stock. Check each product page on the day you quote and again on the day you order. An out-of-stock size can force a more expensive combination. If a size you planned on is missing, ask on WhatsApp before you confirm a delivery date with the customer. For orders that come with a hard deadline, how much buffer to hold for rejects and delays goes further.

Once this first larger order is out, the same method scales without change. At 500 pieces the question becomes how much to buy before production and how much to stage — that is A Customer Wants 500 Custom Candles — How Much Wax, Fragrance Oil, Wick and Jar Inventory Should I Buy Before Starting Production?. At 1,000 corporate pieces the question is cash: whether to buy before the advance arrives. And when the order arrives before the scent is chosen, which materials are safe to buy early sorts the list into what can wait and what cannot.

Frequently asked questions