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The Monday Club visits Northern Lights Candle Company

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Amy Bennett, Chief Operating Officer, led a tour of the Wellsville manufactuar

From Doris McFarquhar, Monday Club Publicist

The Northern Lights Candle Company hosted a tour for Monday Club women at their manufacturing facility on Route 417 southeast of the Village.  Instead of  meeting at the Library on Monday,  the ladies met with Amy Bennett, (above) Northern Lights representative, who led the group through three of the very large manufacturing and packaging buildings, as well as the gift shop and shipping areas.

Northern Lights was founded some 47 years ago, and has evolved into a huge producer of candles and related products. They distribute nationwide  to a  variety of stores, big box companies like Costco, Home Goods, drug stores like Walgreens, grocery stores, dollar stores, as well as  high end specialty locations.

The company has facilities on both sides of Route 417, and the manufacturing     building was the first stop.  This warehouse holds tanks with huge quantities of waxes used in the candle making,  including soy and paraffin, as well as quantities of bee’s wax, palm, coconut, avocado and hemp waxes. Through heated systems of pipes and hoses, wax flows to conveyors with multiple rows of different size and shape containers,  wicks already placed, ready to be filled. Ms. Bennett described the different properties of waxes, the adding of fragrances, color, and wick trimming, topping off, and controlled cooling.

On the North side of 417 the former Ames building houses offices for market development, sales, fragrances, and a testing room in which dozens of candles are burning to measure performance qualities such as burn time, wick size,  product safety and performance reliability.   One long time (37 years)  staff  artisan was creating unique bowl coloration.  Holders have been designed for reuse,  allowing users to change the candles for different fragrances or seasons.

There are few other major candle manufacturers in the U.S., and Northern Lights sells products to some of them them.  There is constant development of new  products and fragrances as seasons and tastes change.  Northern Lights is at the forefront of development and production.  The Ames building has vast  storage areas for boxes, jars, packing material, and  shipping  pallets.  From their huge final fulfillment and shipping area, some 72 pallets  of candle products are sent out each week.  

There are 87 people working at Northern Lights, and product output per person has grown steadily over the years, with constantly improving  production methods and machinery.   Many different styles of candles and related products are produced here in Wellsville and several million are shipped nationwide.  As Ms. Bennett said, “These are products to be loved, enjoyed and kept.”

Next week, the Monday Club will host Brian Cannon, Charter Member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.  

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