I'm Making 200 Candles Every Month — Should I Buy One Month, Two Months or Three Months of Wax Inventory at a Time?

From 200 candles to kilograms

This series uses a 200 g container candle at an 8% fragrance load as its working example: 16 g of oil and 184 g of wax. At 200 candles a month the wax is 200 × 184 g = 36.8 kg. Real production loses some wax: residue in the pouring jug, a top-up pour, a test candle, the odd reject. Plan 3–5% extra; this page uses 4% as a working assumption. That gives 38.27 kg a month. If your candles are a different size or load, swap in your own grams per candle; the method does not change.

Rounding up to whole 5 kg bags gives each plan a little spare: 40 kg covers 1.05 months, 80 kg 2.09 and 115 kg 3.00. The spare rolls into the next order, so over time you buy exactly what you use. Per candle, the wax costs ₹110.22 at ₹599.00 a kilo, or ₹114.62 once the 4% allowance is spread across the candles that make it to sale.

One, two or three months, priced

On a wax with a falling per-kilo price, buying more months at once earns a lower rate. On Luxury Soy Wax Chunks it does not. The 1 kg bag is ₹599.00, the 5 kg ₹2,995.00 (₹599.00 a kilo) and the 10 kg ₹5,999.00 (₹599.90 a kilo). I Currently Buy Soy Wax in 1 Kg Packs but Use 20 Kg Every Month — At What Point Does Moving to 10 Kg or 25 Kg Packs Make More Sense? shows the full ladder. So the three plans buy the same wax at the same rate. What differs is when you pay and how much sits on the shelf.

If you use the wax steadily, the shelf holds the full order on delivery day and close to nothing at the end, so on average it holds half the order. For the one-month plan that is about 20 kg, worth ₹11,980.00. For three months it is 57.5 kg, worth ₹34,442.50. Put a price on that cash with a holding cost rate: what the money would cost or earn elsewhere, plus storage. This page uses an example 1.5% a month (18% a year). Replace it with your own figure, such as the rate on your working-capital borrowing.

The quarterly comparison

Every order costs you something beyond the wax: any delivery charge you pay, and the time to order, receive and check it. This page uses an example ₹300.00 per order; replace it with your own. Over a quarter, the one-month plan places three orders, the two-month plan one and a half on average, and the three-month plan one.

At the example inputs the one-month plan is cheapest (₹1,439.10 a quarter), two months is close behind (₹1,528.20) and three months costs the most (₹1,849.91). The gaps are small against roughly ₹68,774.78 of wax a quarter, which is the real lesson: at 200 candles a month, this decision is about cash and risk more than cost. Two months overtakes one month when each order costs you more than about ₹359.40; three months overtakes one only above about ₹505.41 per order. I'm Using 10 Kg of Soy Wax Every Month — How Much Should I Order at Once so I Save on Cost Without Holding Unnecessary Inventory? turns the same trade into an exact order size.

What if sales dip?

The months you buy are months at your current sales rate. If sales slow, the same wax lasts longer, and the cash stays on the shelf longer. Here is how long each plan's wax lasts if a month of 200 candles turns into 150 or 100.

A three-month buy becomes a six-month buy if sales halve. On a sealed, well-stored wax that is not a disaster, but it is ₹68,885.00 you cannot spend on the jars, oils or marketing that might bring sales back. The one-month plan limits the damage to about two months. That asymmetry is why small businesses with uneven sales usually do better on shorter cycles, even when bigger buys look tidier. My Candle Sales Are Growing Every Month — How Do I Know When Buying Larger Raw-Material Quantities Saves Money Rather than Creating Excess Stock? covers the opposite case, sales that are climbing.

The festive exception

Diwali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, 43 days from today, and the November–February wedding season follows. For many candle businesses October is the busiest production month of the year. If your 200-candle month becomes 400 in October, the one-month plan's 40 kg lasts about two weeks, and a rush reorder in late October is exactly when stock and delivery are least certain.

That is a named reason to step up. A two-month buy placed now, 16 bags or ₹47,920.00 of Chunks, covers a normal October and November; if you expect October to double, buy for the festive quantity instead, and return to one-month orders in December. The extra holding cost for a few weeks is small next to the cost of missing festive orders. My Candle Sales Double During Diwali — How Early Should I Start Increasing Wax, Fragrance Oil, Wick and Jar Inventory Before the Season? covers how early to build festive stock across all materials.

The rest of the bill at 200 candles

Wax is only part of the monthly buy. At 200 candles, Eco Candle Wicks Thin C1 at ₹5.90 each are ₹1,180.00 a month; the price per wick is the same in packs of 10 and 1,000, so a 1,000-pack (₹5,900.00) is five months of wicks with no rate saving, just fewer orders. White Matte Glass Jars come in packs of five at ₹354.00, so 200 jars are 40 packs, ₹14,160.00. Fragrance at 16 g a candle is 3.2 kg a month across your scents; how to split that is in I Have 20 Fragrances but Only Five Are Bestsellers — Should I Buy 1 Kg Fragrance Oils Only for Those Five and Keep Smaller Quantities of the Rest?. I'm Making 500 Candles a Month — What Quantities of Wax, Fragrance Oil, Wicks and Jars Should I Buy to Reduce My Cost per Candle? prices the full bill of materials at 500 candles.

Frequently asked questions