Vietnamese scented candle 'fascinates' Western customers

Nguyen Hoan Le Vy, a girl student in grade 12/14 at Luu Van Liet High School in Vinh Long City, is the founder of Jaros Candle - a scented candle brand. Le Vy knew about scented candles through trial use and from here she began to learn and practice the online business of "buying and reselling" this product line.

When enough basic knowledge to serve the business and maintain a stable customer base has been accumulated, the idea of a startup also begins to form. Fortunately, Le Vy's sister is a final-year student majoring in Chemical Engineering at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. Le Vy asked for her support and the two sisters began researching, inventing, and processing their scented candles. They also created the Jaros Candle brand of scented candles. 

In October 2021, Le Vy founded her brand, Jaros Candle. And in November 2021, the first product launched by the two sisters was researched, packaged, and finished. 

Compared with existing scented candle products on the market, Le Vy focuses on exploiting value from available materials from nature and local agro-products. Including a candle wax mixture with 3 main types: soy wax, beeswax, and palm wax. About essential oils to create scents for candles, Le Vy uses different natural scents such as: floral (jasmine, hydrangea, jasmine, rose, fresh grass), fruity (green apple, citrus, berry, ginger), wood (sandalwood, pine)... In addition, Le Vy also uses recycled coconut shells to make candle boxes.

To meet the diverse needs of customers in the segments from affordable to high-end, Le Vy also imports some materials from Europe to upgrade the value of each scented candle product. The products are pretty eye-catching with a weight of 100 - 150g of candle wax, used in the range of 25 - 30 hours. 

Le Vy shared that to make scented candles, the most important thing is the selection of raw materials to ensure the quality of the product. Le Vy's sister will undertake this stage due to her suitable expertise. Moreover, raw materials must be completely natural, organic, and fully certified, and waxes are not mixed with impurities. Next, Le Vy's mother with the support of 3 employees will package the products, advertise and distribute products to customers.

“Before launching the finished product, I read many academic articles on scented candles. After that, I experimented and tried a lot of new models. According to the average production capacity per day, Jaros Candle can currently produce 350 scented candle products", Le Vy confided. 

On average, the Jaros Candle brand currently offers over 1,000 products to the market each month. The sale includes retail on e-commerce platforms, social networks, and outsourcing for some businesses to export to countries: the USA, Singapore, and Australia. Outsourcing for export also creates more experience for Le Vy in a professional production. “Manufacturing according to the requirements, designs, packaging, and scents of fastidious customers. In particular, the product must also be safe and have a full certificate of origin of raw materials to create a trust for customers, "said Le Vy. 

Approaching the business while still in school requires Le Vy to build a schedule that balances study and brand development. Most of Le Vy's administrative time is spent studying in class and taking extra courses. In her free time, during lunch break, and the evening Le Vy focuses on business and customer care. 

Talking about the revenue brought from the start-up process, Le Vy frankly said that the average monthly revenue of Jaros Candle ranges from VND 50-140 million/month, bringing a profit of 30-50%.  

Talking about the brand development orientation in the coming time, Le Vy is determined to bring the product to other international markets to improve the product value in particular and the local position of Vinh Long province. At the same time, Le Vy tries to research and create many product models so that Jaros Candle can meet the diverse needs of customers. 

Recently, at the Shark Tank Vietnam season 5, Nguyen Hoan Le Vy, founder of Jaros Candle, and Nguyen Hoan Trieu Vy, co-founder successfully raised VND200 million for 20% of the shares. The purpose of raising capital as pointed out by Le Vy is to upgrade candle production equipment and open a shop selling scented candles in Vinh Long province. The final reason is the cost of importing goods to research to make quality and more diversified products for export. 

There have been 3 businesses to accompany and support Le Vy's start-up project, currently, this project is in the process of being appraised for investment.