My Cheapest Supplier Frequently Runs Out of Stock — How Do I Assign a Financial Cost to Production Delays When Comparing Suppliers?

My Cheapest Supplier Frequently Runs Out of Stock — How Do I Assign a Financial Cost to Production Delays When Comparing Suppliers?

 

CSI 464 flat per gram from 1 kg to 10 kg Stock shown per size on every product page Eco C2 ₹9.44 a wick at every pack
Stock-outs · what they cost
Turn your supplier's outages into a price per kg, then buy the buffer that is cheaper than the gap.
★★★★★
"Soy wax quality is the best, which ever products ordered were properly packed and delivered as early as possible, timely response to the inquiries. Good service"
Jaya SawlaniVerified buyer · Nov 2025
Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 (Flakes Form) For Container Candles
★★★★☆
"Good quality .... if possible delivery date would be try little bit quick please"
Subhankar RoyVerified buyer · Sep 2024
Eco Candle Wicks
★★★★☆
"Quality of the wick is good for jar candles, team can work on the pricing and delivery timelines."
Monika DeepVerified buyer · Oct 2025
Eco Candle Wicks
★★★★★
"I love all the products...I received it without any damages...love to reorder again❤️"
Kaushiki SatarkarVerified buyer · Apr 2025
Luxury Soy Wax Chunks for Jar / Container Candles
★★★★☆
"Fragrance is awesome. Hot throw is also very good after burn candle."
AkanshaVerified buyer · Dec 2025
Lavender Fragrance Oil
★★★★☆
"Good quality wax"
Arminder KaurVerified buyer · Oct 2025
Eco Soy CSI 400
Reviews collected and published through Judge.me on candlemakingsuppliesindia.store. They are general reviews of the products named on each card, not assessments of the advice set out below. Wording is unedited.
Shop candle wax Check stock and dispatch
✓ Prices verified 4 October 2026, stock checked per pack ✓ GST invoice available; MSDS and IFRA documents on request ✓ Raw materials only — CSI does not sell finished candles
CSI Cost Reduction · Supplier Stock-outs
A cheap supplier who keeps running out has a second price you never see on the invoice. On a worked 1,000-candle month, one outage costs ₹33,280.00; spread over a year it moves the cheaper wax from ₹450.00 to ₹510.29 a kg.
₹33,280.00
cost of one 8-day wax stock-out, worked example at 1,000 candles a month · CSI live pricing, October 2026
Quick answers — read this first
How do I put a rupee figure on a supplier's stock-outs? Cost one stock-out (lost orders × your contribution + goodwill on delayed orders + idle labour you still pay, or the rush-buy premium if you can buy the same material elsewhere), multiply by how often it happens a year, and divide by the kilos you buy. Add that to the supplier's price per kg. On the worked example here, one 8-day outage costs ₹33,280.00.

Is the cheap supplier still cheaper? In this example, just: Supplier A at ₹450.00/kg with four outages a year has a true price of ₹510.29/kg; Supplier B at ₹500.00/kg with one outage a year, ₹515.07/kg. A saves ₹1,10,400.00 a year on the invoice and loses ₹99,840.00 of it to stock-outs: ₹10,560.00 a year, ₹0.88 a candle, is left. At five outages a year A costs more.

What should I actually do? Usually keep the cheap supplier and buy the buffer that is cheaper than the stock-out. Two weeks of A's wax (92 kg, ₹41,400.00 of cash) costs about ₹7,452.00 a year to hold at a 1.5% monthly cost of money and turns most outages into nothing worse than a reorder.

Is fragrance different? Yes: you cannot rush-buy your Lavender from another house, because their lavender is a different oil. An oil stock-out leaves you waiting or retesting, so your top oils deserve more cover than wax.
The short answer
Formula: true price per kg = invoice price + (outages a year × cost per outage) ÷ kg a year. Cost per outage = lost orders × contribution + goodwill + idle labour, or the rush premium, whichever route you would really take; never add both.
Worked result: A ₹510.29/kg vs B ₹515.07/kg; A keeps ₹10,560.00 a year at four outages and loses at five (break-even about 4.32 a year).
Decision: if a buffer costs less a year than the outages it absorbs, keep the cheaper supplier and hold the buffer; if outages are longer than any buffer you can afford, or quality varies too, look at the reliability threshold.
Never: bridge an outage by pouring an untested substitute for sale; that is a reformulation with its own test gate.
Shop: Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 · Lavender · Roasted Coffee · Eco C2 wicks · Corrugated Box 11 x 11 x 8 cm
In this guide
The price on the invoice is not the price Wax per kg plus the expected cost of stock-outs, spread over 2,208 kg a year. Worked example; your figures will differ. 0 ₹100.00 ₹200.00 ₹300.00 ₹400.00 ₹500.00 Supplier A cheapest, 4 outages a year ₹450.00 price ₹510.29 + stock-outs Supplier B dearer, 1 outage a year ₹500.00 price ₹515.07 + stock-outs A + buffer two weeks of A's wax held ₹450.00 price ₹468.45 + outage + holding Solid: price per kg. Dashed: expected stock-out (and buffer) cost per kg. One outage costs ₹33,280.00. A stays cheaper up to about 4.32 a year; a buffer turns most of its outages into a holding cost.
Worked example at 1,000 candles a month: each supplier's wax price with the expected cost of its stock-outs spread over 2,208 kg a year. The cheapest invoice keeps a small lead at four outages a year; a two-week buffer protects most of that lead for a holding cost of ₹3.38 a kg.
Wax · 0.5074 a gram, flat from 1 kg to 10 kg
Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464: a buffer costs cash, not a pack premium
Fragrance · Lavender 1 kg ₹5,221.00
Your top oils: the stock-outs you cannot rush-buy around
WhatsApp +91 7397976926
Check stock and dispatch before you plan the month, not after the wax runs out
Straight answer
My cheapest supplier frequently runs out of stock. How do I assign a financial cost to production delays when comparing suppliers?
Turn each stock-out into rupees and spread it over what you buy. For one outage, add up orders you lose × the contribution each would have earned, what you spend keeping delayed customers (discount codes, courier upgrades), and labour you pay while nothing is poured; or, if you can buy the same material elsewhere in a hurry, the rush premium instead. Multiply by outages a year, divide by kilos a year and add it to the price per kg. On the worked example (1,000 candles a month, 8 production days lost per outage), one outage costs ₹33,280.00. Supplier A at ₹450.00/kg with four a year comes to ₹510.29/kg; Supplier B at ₹500.00/kg with one a year, ₹515.07/kg. A is still cheaper by ₹10,560.00 a year, but only just, and at five outages it is not. Before you switch, price the alternative: a two-week buffer of A's wax costs about ₹7,452.00 a year to hold and absorbs most of the outages. Buy the buffer that is cheaper than the stock-out; switch only when no affordable buffer covers the gaps.
One line: a stock-out is a price; add it per kg, and buy a buffer when the buffer is cheaper than the outage.
Check stock before you plan, not after you run out: every CSI product page shows which sizes are available; on 4 October 2026, Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464, Lavender and Roasted Coffee were in stock in every size. We publish no stock depth or dispatch times, so for a month's plan, ask.
Ask about stock and dispatch

The worked candle and the two suppliers

The title gives no numbers, so every figure below is a worked example. Swap yours in; the method stays.

The candle is this series' default: a 184 g wax + 16 g fragrance fill (200 g at 8% of total weight). You make 1,000 a month over 25 production days, about 40 a day, so you use 184 kg of wax a month and 2,208 kg a year (worked example — use your own). Supplier A sells your wax at ₹450.00 a kg and runs out often; Supplier B sells a comparable wax at ₹500.00 a kg and runs out rarely. Neither price is a CSI price, and nothing here suggests either supplier is or is not CSI. The fragrance (Lavender at our 1 kg price), the wick (Eco C2) and the box (Corrugated Box 11 x 11 x 8 cm) are real CSI items; the jar is your own, at a worked ₹60.00.

Bill of materials per candle · worked example with Supplier A's wax
200 g at 8% of total weight · % of material cost rounded to one decimal (sums to 100% ± rounding) · materials only: excludes labour, freight, packaging inserts and GST
Component Quantity Price basis Per candle % of material cost
Wax (Supplier A) 184 g ₹450.00/kg — worked example ₹82.80 32.1%
Fragrance (Lavender) 16 g CSI 1 kg ₹5,221.00 ₹83.54 32.4%
Wick (Eco C2) 1 CSI ₹94.40 / 10 ₹9.44 3.7%
Jar 1 your jar — worked example ₹60.00 23.2%
Box (11 x 11 x 8 cm) 1 CSI ₹2,242.00 / 100 ₹22.42 8.7%
Total ₹258.20 100%

Wax is 32.1% of this candle. Supplier A's lower price saves ₹9.20 a candle against B (₹258.20 against ₹267.40), ₹9,200.00 a month and ₹1,10,400.00 a year. That is the number the cheap supplier is selling you. The rest of this page is the number they are not printing.

Contribution, not price
A lost sale costs you its contribution, not its selling price: what is left after materials, packaging, courier and platform fees. This page uses a worked ₹220.00 a candle. If you sell direct at, say, ₹649.00 (worked example), work yours out from your own sales; if most of your orders are wholesale at a lower price, your contribution is smaller and stock-outs cost less per order but more in lost relationships.

What one stock-out really costs

An outage is not one cost. It is several, and they are only real if you would actually incur them.

Take one outage that leaves you without wax for 8 production days (worked example). At 40 candles a day that is 320 candles not made on time. What happens next depends on you and your customers, so cost it the way it would really play out, line by line.

One 8-day stock-out, wait-it-out route · worked example
Each input is labelled: change any of them to yours · % of the event rounded (sums to 100% ± rounding)
Line How it is calculated Cost per event % of event
Lost orders 320 delayed × 20% cancel or never place = 64 × ₹220.00 contribution ₹14,080.00 42.3%
Goodwill on delayed orders 256 kept × ₹25.00 (discount code or courier upgrade) ₹6,400.00 19.2%
Idle labour 2 people × 8 hours × 8 days × ₹100.00/hour, paid anyway ₹12,800.00 38.5%
One stock-out ₹33,280.00 100%

Three things to notice. Lost contribution is the biggest line (42.3%), so your cancellation rate matters more than anything else on the page: a maker selling pre-ordered wedding favours loses almost nothing; a maker selling impulse Diwali gifts can lose most of the delayed orders. Idle labour only counts if you pay people who have nothing else to do; if your team switches to labelling, packing or making wax melts, cut it. And none of this includes the hardest line to price: the wholesale buyer who quietly moves to a maker who delivered on time. Leave it out of the arithmetic and keep it in mind.

The other routes, and why you must not add them

Waiting is one way through an outage. You might instead rush-buy the same wax in small packs from a retailer: 58.88 kg at a worked ₹620.00 a kg plus ₹1,500.00 of extra freight is ₹11,509.60, cheaper than waiting if the same wax really is on sale elsewhere (it often is not; many waxes are one supplier's own product). Or you might pour a different wax: a quick 9-candle confirmation test costs ₹2,370.38 in materials, and if a rushed substitute fails after release (a judgement 15% chance here) the expected rework and refunds on the 320 candles come to ₹15,273.60; ₹17,643.98 together. Cost each route, then use the one you would actually take. Adding the rush premium to the lost orders counts the same outage twice.

Mistake: pricing a stock-out as "a few days' delay, no cost". Why it fails: the cost is real but invisible: it shows up as fewer repeat orders, coupons you would not otherwise have issued and wages paid for no output. Fix: keep a one-line log for every outage: dates, days lost, orders delayed, orders cancelled, coupons issued, rush buys. Three outages of real data beat any worked example on this page.

Price saving against stock-out cost

The question is not "is A cheaper?". It is "is A cheaper after its outages?".
Supplier A vs Supplier B · a year at 1,000 candles a month · worked example
2,208 kg of wax a year · outages a year are worked examples: use your own log
Line Supplier A Supplier B
Wax price per kg ₹450.00 ₹500.00
Outages a year (worked) 4 1
Expected stock-out cost a year ₹1,33,120.00 ₹33,280.00
Stock-out cost per kg ₹60.29 ₹15.07
True price per kg ₹510.29 ₹515.07
Stock-out cost per candle ₹11.09 ₹2.77

A's invoice saves ₹1,10,400.00 a year. Its three extra outages cost ₹99,840.00. A is still ahead by ₹10,560.00 a year, ₹0.88 a candle: not nothing, but a fraction of the ₹9.20 a candle the price list promised. The break-even is about 4.32 outages a year: at five, A loses ₹22,720.00 a year against B. Put another way, at four outages against one, A's lead disappears once a single outage costs more than ₹36,800.00.

Sensitivity. The answer turns on the cancellation rate. If 40% of delayed orders are lost instead of 20%, one outage costs ₹45,760.00, and A's three extra outages cost ₹26,880.00 a year more than its lower price saves. If your customers are patient and your team has other work during an outage, A wins comfortably. That is why the log matters more than the formula.

Argued against our own interest: if your cheap supplier's outages are short and you can absorb them with a buffer, stay with them. Do not move your wax to us, or to anyone, because "reliable" sounds better than "cheap": the arithmetic above says the difference is often a buffer, not a supplier. And we run out too: on 4 October 2026, Soy Wax 464 Pellets, Semi Refined Paraffin and Sandalwood in 15 g, 50 g and 100 g were out of stock on our own store. How much cheaper a new supplier must be before leaving a reliable one is the reliability-threshold post; what a 15% cheaper offer is worth after switching costs is the 15% cheaper supplier post.

The cheaper fix: buy the buffer, not the supplier

If a stock-out costs ₹33,280.00 and a buffer costs a fraction of that a year, the buffer wins.

A buffer turns an outage into a holding cost. Two weeks of Supplier A's wax is 92 kg, ₹41,400.00 of cash on the shelf. At a worked 1.5% a month cost of money (overdraft interest, or what that cash would earn in the business; use your own), holding it costs ₹7,452.00 a year, ₹3.38 per kg used. If it absorbs three of A's four outages a year, A's true price falls to ₹468.45 a kg, and A with a buffer beats B without one by ₹1,02,948.00 a year (₹8.58 a candle). The buffer pays for itself if it averts just one outage every 4.5 years.

1
Size the buffer to the outage, not to a round numberIf A's outages typically last 10 calendar days, two weeks of cover (92 kg at 1,000 a month) absorbs most of them. A buffer shorter than a typical outage only delays the stop.
2
Rotate it: first in, first outUse the oldest bag first and reorder when you dip into the buffer, not when the shelf is empty. The buffer is a level you hold, not a stash you forget. CSI 464's page states "Shelf Life 60 months (cool, dry storage)"; other wax pages we list state none in the text we captured, so ask your own supplier.
3
Watch lotsA buffer bought from several deliveries can mix lots. Label each bag with its lot and date, and pour a test candle from each new lot before it joins production; incoming checks belong in the approved-supplier list post.
4
Add the buffer to your reorder pointReorder point = daily use × your supplier's real lead time + buffer. Use the lead time you have measured from this supplier, not the one they quote; CSI publishes none, so ask us for yours.
5
Keep cash for it, not a bigger orderA buffer is not a bulk discount. If a supplier offers a lower price for a much bigger order, that is a separate decision about cash locked in stock: the MOQ versus working-capital post.
6
Review it after every outageIf an outage ran past the buffer, either the buffer was too small or this supplier is less reliable than your log said. Update the log, then the size.
Where a buffer saves nothing: if the supplier's outages last six weeks, or arrive without warning just before Diwali, two weeks of cover just delays the stop. If quality also varies lot to lot, a buffer stores the variation. Then the cheaper supplier really is dearer, and the remedy is either a second approved source (priced in the two-suppliers post) or the dearer supplier. A buffer also costs space: 10 ten-kilo bags, kept cool and dry.

Why a fragrance stock-out costs more than a wax one

You can sometimes rush-buy the same wax. You can never rush-buy the same scent from someone else.

A wax outage has three routes: wait, rush-buy the same wax, or substitute. A fragrance outage has two: wait, or substitute a different oil, which is a new scent with its own load, wick behaviour and colour. Take a Lavender SKU selling 250 candles a month (worked example; 4 kg of oil). An 8-day Lavender outage, with your team moving to other scents so no labour is idle, costs about ₹5,120.00 in lost contribution and goodwill. One month of Lavender cover is ₹20,884.00 of cash and about ₹3,759.12 a year to hold at 1.5% a month: cheaper than a single outage. A replacement lavender from another house needs at least a 9-candle test (₹2,147.76 in materials at sample prices) and, if customers notice the difference, more than that. Whether an oil that smells almost identical can keep your wick and load is the almost-identical fragrance post.

Wax outage vs fragrance outage · how they differ
Judgement, from the routes available · worked figures from this page
Wax outage Fragrance outage
Can you rush-buy the same material elsewhere? Sometimes (if the wax is sold by others) No: another supplier's oil is a different oil
Can you substitute? Only with a test: a new wax is a reformulation Only with a test, and the scent changes
Does production stop? Yes, for every SKU Only for that scent; labour can move
What to buffer Two weeks (92 kg here) About a month on your top two or three oils
Holding cost here ₹7,452.00 a year ₹3,759.12 a year for Lavender

The asymmetry points one way: hold a little wax buffer for every SKU, and a deeper buffer only on the oils that carry your sales. Slow scents do not deserve a month of cover; the cash is better spent on the bestsellers. Asking a supplier about batch consistency and long-term availability for one oil is the same-fragrance-for-years post.

The test gate when an outage forces a substitute

An outage is the moment makers break their own formula. Decide the rule before it happens.

The worst cost of a stock-out is not the delay; it is the untested substitute poured in a hurry and shipped. Every substitution, wax for wax, oil for oil, wick for wick, is a formulation change. Before any substitute reaches a customer:

Substitution rules for an outage
Judgement; method lives in the change-control series
Situation Minimum before selling Where the method is
Same product, same supplier, new lot Incoming check and one test candle Approved-supplier list
Same wax name, different supplier Full burn test: wick, throw, appearance Changed only the wax supplier
Two materials out at once Design the test so you can tell the effects apart Wax and fragrance both out of stock
A large order and an approved material gone Decide: substitute, part-produce or wait 5,000-candle order, material unavailable

Keep everything else identical while you test a substitute: same jar, same wick, same load, same cure time, same test room. If the substitute passes, record it as an approved alternative and you have, in effect, started a second source; if it fails, the outage cost you time but not customers. The cost of keeping a pre-approved backup on the shelf, and which materials deserve one, is the dual-sourcing post.

If you buy from CSI: each product page shows which sizes are in stock; on 4 October 2026, Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464, Lavender, Roasted Coffee and Eco C2 were available in every size. We do not publish stock depth or dispatch times, and we will not promise them here. Before a big month, send us your list on WhatsApp and ask; if you want a buffer, ask for lot numbers on what we send so you can rotate it properly.

Materials to buffer, priced

Five items from the worked candle, at every listed pack on 4 October 2026. CSI publishes no throw or burn data, so nothing is ranked on performance; the order follows what an outage would stop first.

1
container soy wax · the line a stock-out stops first
Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464
The page states "Fragrance Load Up to 10%", "Pour Temperature 80°C – 90°C" and "Shelf Life 60 months (cool, dry storage)" in the text we captured. A two-week buffer at 1,000 candles a month is 92 kg, about 10 ten-kilo bags: ₹46,680.80 at our 10 kg price. Argued against our own interest: CSI publishes no stock depth and no lead time, and things on our own store were out of stock on 4 October 2026 (Soy Wax 464 Pellets in every size, Semi Refined Paraffin, Sandalwood in 15 g, 50 g and 100 g). Do not switch to us because you assume we never run out; check the product page before you plan, and ask on WhatsApp.
Size Price Per gram 200 g candles (184 g wax) Wax per candle
500 g ₹260.00 ₹0.52 2 ₹95.68
1 kg ₹507.40 0.5074 5 ₹93.36
5 kg ₹2,537.00 0.5074 27 ₹93.36
10 kg ₹5,074.00 0.5074 54 ₹93.36
Flat 0.5074 a gram from 1 kg to 10 kg: a buffer costs cash, not a premium. Buy 10 kg — ₹5,074.00
2
container soy wax · a second CSI wax, not a drop-in
Luxury Soy Wax Chunks for Jar / Container Candles
The page states "up to 13% fragrance load capacity". It is a different wax from CSI 464, so it is not an emergency substitute: using it in place of your approved wax is a reformulation that needs its own burn test. It is listed here because two wax listings from one supplier are not two suppliers: a qualified backup is a separate decision, priced in the two-approved-suppliers post. Its 500 g is its cheapest per gram; the 10 kg costs ₹5,999.00, a little more than ten 1 kg packs.
Size Price Per gram 200 g candles (184 g wax)
500 g ₹299.00 0.5980 2
1 kg ₹599.00 0.5990 5
5 kg ₹2,995.00 0.5990 27
10 kg ₹5,999.00 0.5999 54
A different formula, not a stand-in: test before you pour it for sale. See Chunks — from ₹299.00
3
fragrance oil · lavender · the kind of stock-out you cannot rush-buy around
Lavender Fragrance Oil
The page states "Recommended fragrance load 6-10% for candles" and describes "fresh lavender top notes, herbal green mid notes, and soft musk base". A month of cover for a 250-candle-a-month Lavender SKU is 4 kg, ₹20,884.00 at the 1 kg price, costing about ₹313.26 a month to hold at 1.5%. Another house's lavender is a different oil: you cannot bridge an outage with it without retesting.
Size Price Per gram 200 g candles at 8% (16 g) Oil per candle
15 g ₹105.02 ₹7.00 none (a sniff sample) ₹112.02
50 g ₹270.00 ₹5.40 3 ₹86.40
100 g ₹540.00 ₹5.40 6 ₹86.40
500 g ₹2,620.00 ₹5.24 31 ₹83.84
1 kg ₹5,221.00 ₹5.22 62 ₹83.54
Per gram falls from ₹7.00 (15 g) to ₹5.22 (1 kg); 50 g and 100 g are both ₹5.40. Buy 1 kg — ₹5,221.00
4
fragrance oil · coffee · a second bestseller to buffer
Roasted Coffee Fragrance
The page states "candles (6-10%)" and describes "fresh coffee bean top notes, dark chocolate and espresso heart, and a warm vanilla and caramel base". If two oils carry most of your sales, those two are where a month of cover earns its holding cost; the tail of slow scents is not. Here the 1 kg is cheaper per gram than two 500 g packs.
Size Price Per gram 200 g candles at 8% (16 g) Oil per candle
15 g ₹93.22 ₹6.21 none (a sniff sample) ₹99.43
50 g ₹230.00 ₹4.60 3 ₹73.60
100 g ₹390.00 ₹3.90 6 ₹62.40
500 g ₹1,890.00 ₹3.78 31 ₹60.48
1 kg ₹3,738.00 ₹3.74 62 ₹59.81
1 kg ₹3,738.00 vs two 500 g packs ₹3,780.00. Buy 1 kg — ₹3,738.00
5
wick · cheap to hold, expensive to run out of
Eco Candle Wicks — Thick (C2)
₹9.44 a wick at every pack, so bigger packs save nothing per wick. At 1,000 candles a month a month of C2 is ₹9,440.00; three months is ₹28,320.00. Wicks are small and inexpensive to hold, and a wick stock-out stops production as surely as a wax stock-out, so they deserve generous cover. Holding more stock is covered in the wick safety-stock post.
Pack Price Per wick Months of cover at 1,000 a month
Thick (C2) / 100 ₹944.00 ₹9.44 a tenth
Thick (C2) / 500 ₹4,720.00 ₹9.44 half
Thick (C2) / 1000 ₹9,440.00 ₹9.44 one
₹9.44 a wick from 10 to 1,000. Buy 1,000 — ₹9,440.00
Diwali is 8 November 2026, 35 days from 4 October 2026. An outage in late October costs far more than one in March, because delayed festive orders are lost, not postponed. Build your wax and top-oil buffer now, not when the supplier's stock runs thin.
Plan a festive buffer on WhatsApp
The CSI principle
A stock-out is a price. Add it to the invoice, then buy whichever is cheaper: the buffer or the other supplier.
Worked: one outage ₹33,280.00; A ₹510.29/kg vs B ₹515.07/kg; a two-week buffer costs ₹7,452.00 a year.
"The cheapest supplier is the one whose price is still lowest after you have paid for their gaps."
— CandleMakingSuppliesIndia
Why trust this guide

CandleMakingSuppliesIndia sells the wax, oils, wicks and boxes priced here, and does not sell finished candles. This page still tells you to stay with a cheaper supplier when a buffer covers their gaps, and that our own store had items out of stock on the day we checked.

Every CSI price was checked on the live store on 4 October 2026, per pack, with availability per size; nothing shown as buyable was out of stock that day. Product wording is quoted from the pages. CSI does not publish stock depth or lead times; ask on WhatsApp.

Both suppliers' prices, the outage length and frequency, the cancellation rate, contribution, goodwill, labour rate, rush price, cost of money and the substitution risk are labelled worked examples or judgement, never CSI figures. This is practical business judgement, not financial advice. For bulk pricing, GST invoicing, and MSDS and IFRA documentation on request, message us on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate the cost of a supplier stock-out?
Cost one outage: lost orders × contribution + goodwill on delayed orders + idle labour (or the rush-buy premium, if that is what you would do). Multiply by outages a year and divide by kilos a year. On the worked example one outage costs ₹33,280.00.
Is a cheaper supplier worth it if they keep running out of stock?
Only if the price gap beats the outages. Worked: A at ₹450.00/kg with four outages a year has a true price of ₹510.29/kg against B's ₹515.07/kg, so A just wins; at five outages it loses.
How much safety stock of candle wax should I keep?
Enough to cover a typical outage plus the real lead time. Two weeks at 1,000 candles a month is 92 kg; at a 1.5% monthly cost of money that costs ₹7,452.00 a year to hold.
Can I use a different wax when my usual one is out of stock?
Not for sale without a test. A different wax, even with the same name from another supplier, is a reformulation: test wick, throw and appearance first, keeping everything else identical.
Does CSI ever run out of stock?
Yes. On 4 October 2026, Soy Wax 464 Pellets, Semi Refined Paraffin and Sandalwood in 15 g, 50 g and 100 g were out of stock. Each product page shows available sizes; for stock and dispatch on a big order, ask on WhatsApp.
Should I keep more fragrance oil in stock than wax?
For your top two or three oils, yes: you cannot rush-buy the same scent elsewhere, so an oil outage leaves you waiting or retesting. Slow scents do not need deep cover.
Stock-outs and supplier choice
Price the outage, buy the buffer that is cheaper than it, and never pour an untested substitute.
On the worked example one stock-out costs ₹33,280.00, and two weeks of wax costs ₹7,452.00 a year to hold. Check our live stock on each product page, and ask on WhatsApp before a big month.
Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 Check stock on WhatsApp
Continue the read — profit engineering and supplier switching
Editorial standards & sources
About this guide: part of CSI's series on candle cost reduction and raw-material optimisation, cluster 6081–6100. It shows how to put a rupee figure on a supplier's stock-outs: the cost of one outage by route, expected cost a year, true price per kg, the break-even outage rate, buffer economics, why fragrance outages cost more, and the test gate for substitutes.

Customer reviews: The six reviews at the top of this page are genuine, published Judge.me reviews left by CSI customers on the product pages named on each card — Eco Candle Wicks, Eco Soy CSI 400, Lavender Fragrance Oil, Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 (Flakes Form) For Container Candles, Luxury Soy Wax Chunks for Jar / Container Candles. They are general product reviews, not assessments of the cost-reduction advice on this page. Names, star ratings, dates and products are as recorded by Judge.me and wording is unedited. "Verified buyer" appears only on reviews Judge.me recorded as verified — Jaya Sawlani, Subhankar Roy, Monika Deep, Kaushiki Satarkar, Akansha, Arminder Kaur. Reviews below five stars are included as published, not filtered out.

Figures verified 4 October 2026, CSI live pricing: Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 500 g ₹260.00, 1 kg ₹507.40, 5 kg ₹2,537.00, 10 kg ₹5,074.00; Luxury Soy Wax Chunks 500 g ₹299.00, 1 kg ₹599.00, 5 kg ₹2,995.00, 10 kg ₹5,999.00; Lavender Fragrance Oil 15 g ₹105.02, 50 g ₹270.00, 100 g ₹540.00, 500 g ₹2,620.00, 1 kg ₹5,221.00; Roasted Coffee Fragrance 15 g ₹93.22, 50 g ₹230.00, 100 g ₹390.00, 500 g ₹1,890.00, 1 kg ₹3,738.00; Eco Candle Wicks Thick (C2) 10 ₹94.40, 100 ₹944.00, 500 ₹4,720.00, 1,000 ₹9,440.00; Corrugated Box for Candle Packaging (11 x 11 x 8 cm) Pack of 100 ₹2,242.00. Every pack listed is in stock on 4 October 2026; out of stock that day: Soy Wax 464 Pellets (all sizes), Semi Refined Paraffin Wax, Sandalwood Fragrance Oil 15 g, 50 g and 100 g. Per unit = price ÷ grams or units, two decimals.

Non-price figures: the candle is 200 g at 8% of total weight (16 g oil + 184 g wax). Supplier A ₹450.00/kg and Supplier B ₹500.00/kg, 1,000 candles a month over 25 production days, 8 days lost per outage, 4 and 1 outages a year, 20% of delayed orders lost, ₹220.00 contribution, ₹25.00 goodwill, ₹100.00/hour for two people, the jar at ₹60.00, the rush price, the 15% substitution risk and the 1.5% monthly cost of money are worked examples or judgement. Costs exclude labour (except where costed as idle labour), freight, GST and marketing. Diwali 8 November 2026 is a calendar fact.
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