Steve Ryan
Midwest Sales Manager
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.
Judy Machado
Director of Sales
Northern Wicks
Interview with Judy Machado
Times are good for candle manufacturers, and as the premiere supplier of candle tins in the United States, VinCenzo is familiar with many of them. One of our favorites, for a number of reasons, is Northern Wicks. Judy Machado, the Director of Sales, is far from being the least of those reasons... as well as the fact that she offers a truly exceptional product.
Scented candles for The Body Shop is one of the projects VinCenzo has been helping Northern Wicks to create.
"Our niche is that we offer a natural product that is high performance," explains Judy. It's obvious from the start that quality is the biggest concern. "We don't include paraffin in any of our candles. Instead, our candles are made from a blend of vegetable oils and beeswax, so they burn slow and clean and have a wonderful fragrance performance."
As a result, business has been booming. "The candle industry is growing again. People are spending more money on the smaller luxuries in life, candles included." In fact, Northern Wicks has gained the attention of some rather large customers. "We're a private label company that specializes in turnkey; we have an extensive database of sources for packaging, fragrance and trend research. Our candles can be found in various retail and spa locations including The Body Shop, The Good Home Company, Portico, Four Seasons and Marriott Hotels.
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As Northern Wicks has grown, so has their use of VinCenzo tins. "80% of our clients take at least one tin in their natural candle program. This are very popular in candles. It used to be that they were mostly used as travel candles, but now clients are telling us that their customers are using them as decorative items in their homes. The window tins are the most popular for us. We started offering the window tins this year with one client in January, and now we have eight clients who have added this unique tin to their assortment."
VinCenzo's new square drawn tins... with or without window lids.
In an effort to be sure our tins are always a huge hit, VinCenzo is constantly working with Northern Wicks to capture, or in some cases define, the next trend in packaging. "[VinCenzo] designed for us a new item that we think is going to be very popular," Judy explains, referring to our new square drawn window tins. "[VinCenzo] has the first two piece square tin in the market, which is a great benefit to our clients who are looking for the newest packaging design." In fact, working closely with our clients to come up with creative ideas is something that we pride ourselves on. "Joseph is fabulous," Judy says, referring to VinCenzo's VP of Sales, Joseph Marlovits. "Not only is he a pleasure to speak to, he always has a solution for everything, including excellent and creative ideas. Every time he comes to Toronto to visit us, he comes loaded with an enormous box [of samples]. He certainly is our preferred vendor!" We certainly appreciate the praise, but we're hoping it doesn't go to Joe's head.