 Well, this is Rob Hack back with another episode of Exporting from Hawaii. Today, we're very lucky to have a guest, a good friend of mine from the North Shore of Oahu, Kelly Milletta. She is owner of the North Shore Candle Company, based in Cahucu, so welcome. Thank you for being here on Exporting from Hawaii. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Wonderful candles and some other body products, but I think with a company name like North Shore Candle Company, people are expecting you to make candles and that's sort of your core competency. Wonderful products. Before we jump into the candles, tell us about you and the history of the company. When did the company start? I started the end of 2014. And let's see, where did I start? My grandmother was a painter and a crafter, and my father was a production framer and had a construction business and always came home with salvaged pieces that he made into workable pieces of art. So I think that was kind of the root of everything. I moved to Hawaii. My husband and I, 19 years ago. Were you always on the North Shore? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Your husband's a surfer, right? Yes. Yeah. And so I worked for an import-export business who did wholesale and retail, and then I worked for a local artist on the North Shore as a production manager. So all of this kind of gave me the foundation and the roots for what I do now. Making candles and lots of candles. So how did you get into the candle business particularly? Did you know about this before 2014? No, I was self-taught, but always enjoyed making them and wanted to experiment more. So your candles are a bit different than somebody like me who doesn't know very much about candles. Your candles are different because they're soy-based by and large, right? Can you explain the difference between a soy-based candle and what you might find at a non-soy-based candle? So a lot of big-box stores have paraffin candles or soy blends, and those necessarily aren't that great for our environment. A lot of wicks, there's all the different components that come into it. I just try and keep it as simple as possible with 100% soy wax and 100% cotton wicks. So a lot of these wicks that you would find in other candles or big-box store candles have zinc in the center of them in the core, and that's not good to burn. So there's no paraffins or lipolates or anything in there. Your wicks are made out of what? Cotton. Oh, all cotton. You were telling me that the diameter of the wick is important. How does that... For each vessel that you're using, so I use a lot of repurposed glass. So when I was developing North Shore Candle Company, I struggled with paying to ship in all of this glass and product, so I thought, why not help with... Because there is no glass manufacturer in Hawaii. And so I found some companies or different restaurants and resorts to help have the waste diversion. So you pick up the bottles and then you cut them yourself? Yes. So I have a recycling partnership with a couple of different resorts and restaurants on Oahu. Oh, wow. And then so you cut these down to sort of a standard size, and what would this blue bottle come from? This blue vessel would have been from... That was a sake bottle. Sake. I was going to say sake. Wow. That's really neat. Yeah. And how many ounces is this product? That one is six ounces. Okay. And then what do you sell more of, the glass vessels or the tins? I'd say it's a mix probably with all the tourism, I'd say the tins, because it's easier... Travels better. Yes. It's sleek and compact and it's easier to travel with. And is this the standard size? What is this? That is eight ounces. Eight ounces. Yeah. Okay, great. Now, for me, I think your products smell wonderful. The scents are fantastic, as long time viewers of this show will know that I'm attracted to anything that is lily koi, but there are other scents that are wonderful. Tell us about the scents. What are the most common scents that are here? So the scents of Hawaii is probably the most popular and we offer those in the eight ounce tins and the five ounce mason jars and also these little repurposed baby jars. And it's the lily koi love, which is lily koi and guava. Yeah, that's great. And then the Hawaiian holiday, which is a press room areas and Hawaiian sunset, which is a favorite coconut lime. That's great. Now, in eight ounce tin, roughly how long will that burn for? So typically, per ounce, each ounce of soy wax will burn for eight or nine minutes. Okay. So roughly an hour-ish or more than an hour, good enough for a bath, and there's no difference between whether what the vessel is, it'll burn the same what the wax is. And then the baby jars, where are you getting these from? So those are all locally sourced on the North Shore of Oahu, mostly just we have a large population on the North Shore, big families. And so I just get them off Craigslist actually. Oh, really? That's funny because I don't know that you can, these are part of the high five program. I don't think you can turn these in for money, right? They would just wind up sort of possibly in the landfill. Now, this is also an interesting side product. You don't make these, but you have a colleague who makes these. Can you tell us about the wood? Yes. This wood here is from Found Woodworking. Jen Homsie from Found Woodworking creates these, and believe it or not, this used to be like a scrap piece for her. She makes a lot of cutting boards from local native woods, hardwoods, and most of these pieces used to go in the fire pit. And then, you know, we decided, we got together and decided to make a boat of holder for these purpose baby jars. Oh, wow. Did these used to be wine models? Yes. So, those are all cut to a nice size so where they can be used again. I hope that they all get used again as like a juice glass or a wine glass, or ... Oh, yeah, easily. Right. There are many uses for them. No, is there a type of wine bottle that you're looking for? Because I would assume that not all wine bottles are made the same. And some of them have that lot. What do they call the ... A punt? Yeah, the punt is the big concave part up inside the bottle. These don't have much of a punt, so you can fit more wax in there, but do you have to inspect each bottle or how does that work? Well, I just searched and searched different ones that had a very mild punt on the bottom. Some of them break well, some of them don't break well as far as cutting the glass. So it was a tricky process all along the way. And then these are gift packs. What's included in a gift pack? And so these have two different candles of your choice and one of our body sprays. Okay, let's talk about the body spray. Where did you start this ... when did you start this idea and how did you come up with the idea for body spray and what's in these products? Okay. So I would say the candles were doing so well that I thought why not another product, right? And I use a lot of essential oils myself and just ... a lot of times my hair gets frizzy with the humidity, so I use coconut oil and jojoba. I don't have that problem. And so I thought why not make a product with all these things that I use to moisturize my body and my hair tame and things like that and just relaxing room space and space mist. So did these have product names like ... this one is mana, right? Yes. What is in a jasmine orange, ilang ilang? Yeah. Are there other ... So there are all 100% essential oils and organic jojoba, creep seed, coconut oils. This one's called the aloha. Okay. And there are Hawaiian sandalwood and vanilla. So which of these products right now are you finding is the most popular? There's flora. I would say ... tough call. The Hawaiian sandalwood is probably the most popular because it's from the Big Island. We sourced our sandalwood from the Big Island, essential oil, and then the lavender also from Maui. Oh, wow. So very much made in Hawaii, made with aloha products, very extremely environmentally friendly with a lot of repurposing going on. That's wonderful. Let's talk about streak price. If somebody were to go out and buy this. I think one of your major supply chain or places where people could buy it is at Whole Foods. Yes. Okay. There's others. They have three stores on the island that carry. So what would an 8-ounce tin cost at Whole Foods right now? $16 or $15.95. That's quite reasonable. How about a baby jar? They do not carry that size, but they are $7. Okay. How about these mason jars? And those are $12.50. Great. And how about a gift pack like this? And so those are $35. $35, that's quite reasonable. And then how about the body sprays? So there's two sprays and two oils, two are moisturizing, two are mostly refreshing and hydrating. The sprays are $14 and the body oils are $18. The sprays are in the clear. Yes. Great. And are these, where would customers buy these right now? And so these you can find at the North Shore Surf Shop. They have three locations on the North Shore. Seamades boutique in right by Sharks Cove, North Shore Surf Shop in Haleiva and North Shore boutique. We're recording today at the, basically, what steps of Aloha Tower. Is there anybody down here in Waikiki, Alamoana, Kakaako area that sells the products right now? There's a few stores. Let me think. There's Pineapple County, let's see Magnolia, Hawaii and the Kahalamoa. Let's see, the Sugar Cane Shop. That's great, but also there's Whole Foods in Kakaako that can go to a ward, I guess. Kahala. Great. Okay, great. We'll be right back with Kali Mileta of North Shore Candle Company after this one minute break. Aloha. Aloha. My name is Duretian. You are watching Think Tech Hawaii. I will be hosting a show here every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. and we will be talking to a lot of experts and guests around sustainability, social justice, the future here in Hawaii, progressive politics and a whole lot more. So please tune in and thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. Hi guys, I'm your host Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health regarding your health and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier and have fun at the same time. So do join me, I look forward to seeing you and Aloha. This is Rob Hack back again with Exporting from Hawaii. Today we're speaking with Kelly Maleta from North Shore Candle Company here on Oahu, based in Kahuku. Are there any challenges to being based on the North Shore versus being down here and say the commercial hub of Oahu? Do you have any issues with getting supplies or making deliveries or shipments or anything like that? Is having a nice quiet life near the beach, is there any difference from being down here? I would have to say no, it's very easy, you just go, there's traffic everywhere. So you just strategically plan your route and let's see, shipping the things, I try and source everything I can from the Hawaiian Islands but the things that I can or am not yet, I get from mostly the West Coast so it's all my components are either Hawaii made or US made. When you said earlier that you got Hawaiian sandalwood from the Big Island and something else from Maui, what was from Maui? The lavender. The lavender. So do you physically go there and source these components or how do you work on them? No, no, I purchase them wholesale on companies. Okay, great. Now, how often are you making deliveries then down to this part of the island? So typically I try to put everything together and do my deliveries every other week so I'll just spend a whole day just doing deliveries. And then shipping, when you're shipping products say to the mainland or I know you've shipped product to Japan, you shipped them to Korea, how do you ship that? Is there a preferred vendor that you use to ship things or how do you do that? Well, it depends if it's time sensitive, it will go through FedEx, otherwise I use the United States Postal Service and that works so far, it's worked great for me. I think a lot of products like yours that are dense, compact, they do quite well with the USPS flat rate boxes, is that what you're using? So it's probably 80-ish dollars to pack up a box and send it to Japan. How many of these can you fit in one box? Two dozen. That's good. That lowers the per unit shipping cost. And that's one of the largest vessels so some of the smaller ones more would fit and even more. These I think 50 fit in a large flat rate. Just to make sure the audience understands that for the flat rate box the weight is really not an issue, it's just how much you can fit in the box and whether you're shipping a box full of feathers or a box full of candles, the rate is going to be the same. So to Japan I think it's around 80 or 82 dollars these days. Is that the same to the mainland usually if you're shipping product there? Yes, I use the Postal Service and again if it's time sensitive then it will go FedEx but otherwise it's very prompt with the priority mail. What percentage of your business is online sales versus retail sales? I mostly sell wholesale, retail, the e-commerce I would say 25 percent. And most of the e-commerce customers are from the mainland or from Hawaii or how does that work? Mostly I'd say from the mainland. Mostly from the mainland, Canada, Australia, Japan but the majority from the mainland, US. And what is your e-commerce platform that you use? Shopify. How does that work well for you? Oh yeah, it's great. It's great for someone that doesn't have a background with web building. I did have someone help me build the website itself but everything from this point on I can maintain very easily. Well that's great. And you find that having a Shopify based system in Hawaii you're sort of, you're off the grid in a way from being able to get customer service from the Shopify platform or something. Either in, I don't know, the east coast of the US or something like that. But you've had no problem dealing with them. No. Oh that's great. I'm glad to hear that. With Shopify then, on your current website do you have other languages like Japanese or is it purely English? It's purely English, yes. I don't have Japanese yet. And when, if a foreign customer not Canada but somebody from Japan or Korea or Australia when they order from you, how do they order shipping? How is that handled? That I have set up with a flat rate also. With the USPS flat rate. So generally though that customer is not going to order one candle, they'll order 24 hours. They'll order multiple to make it worthwhile. Okay that's great. And do you get a lot of customers coming now from Australia? That seems to me to be a growing market for a lot of our premium Hawaii products. Are you finding more customers from Australia? A good amount, yes, definitely. And they, I get a lot of emails from Australia just saying that we picked up your product on the North Shore and we wish we could get it here. And so they'll just gather, they'll either order enough for themselves and then give them as gifts or you know, cooie up with some friends and place an order together to make the shipping worthwhile. Have you, do you feel, is there any difference in the preferences of the foreign customers versus what locals or mainlanders would order from you? Is there a different scent or? I would say mostly everyone goes for the nostalgic sense of Hawaii which is most of the collection is that a lot of mainlanders will get the relaxing sense. I know you'll get, I'll have students from Boston or Chicago or different areas on the mainland that just miss Hawaii. People that have gone there to study or have transplanted there and they're working in business and small cubicles or something and they just want, they want to bring that Hawaii into their home there. I could imagine. Now we have coming up, as you know very well, Christmas and you have a melancholy democracy. I imagine that Christmas is a big time for you. This is really strong cinnamon that's great and nutmeg. I would imagine that Christmas is big, is that correct? Yes. Are your exports proportionately big around Christmas or are you selling mostly to the mainland or locally? Locally. I do a lot of farm markets in the last quarter of the year so I bring in a lot more retail that last quarter but it's definitely the busiest because of the holiday season because there's more families getting together and more hostess gifts. Oh yeah, of course. Wow and so do you have to hire extra help around the Christmas time to help you with all this production at that time? I do. I have a part-time employee that helps me with the glass production all year long and then I have two other part-time, part-timers during the holidays. Wow, it must be a very, very busy hectic time. Does a company like Whole Foods or that sort of distribution people, do they order more too around the holidays? Yes, they all tend to bulk up and get everything out early, you know, how you, they prepare months ahead of time. Do you have a holiday Christmas-y kind of package that you develop similar to this but Christmas-oriented or how does that work? Well, I just, actually these gift sets are mostly for the holidays and then I just have different colored packaging like the red and the green. I realize that one of the things I forgot to talk about which I think is really, one of your simplest but a very interesting product are these recycled bottle caps that you use and this can burn for, I don't know, 10, 12, 15 minutes, something like that, I guess, right? Yeah. But these are great and then you sell a whole sachet of, what, five, six, seven, something like that? How many are there? Yes, so typically there's, if someone orders off of the website, I throw in a little sachet just so they can have a sample set of whatever this scent is that's going out to my candle club subscriptions that month. Oh, tell us about the candle club. What is that all about? So I have yearly subscriptions for either the repurposed wine bottle vessel or the eight ounce tins and so a lot of them are gifted from sons to mothers or throughout the holiday season and all year long, actually. And so the first week of every month, they will get a candle at their doorstep and ahead of time, they can see which one is coming to them on the website. So do you mix that up? You send them a different candle every month? So there are some different ones than what I typically offer. Some of my scents of Hawaii are in there. But also I put in some holiday scents. How do you do research and development of new products? How do you come up with new scents? I mean, that must be kind of fun in a way, but on the other hand, maybe sometimes you make something that you think, I don't like that one. But how do you do that? It is time consuming. I've had companies approach me. I do some private labeling for a couple of companies. And one company asked if I could make a beer flavored candle. And I just I don't know about that. I couldn't do that one. That one was tricky. But we tried. So it's just it's really just a lot of mixing of the different oils and a lot of playing chemists. I think it would have been fun to come up with your Konokopi scent because that is really a wonderful, but strong coffee scent. If you're a coffee lover, it would be a fantastic scent to have burning in the background. Which was the first one you came up with? What would it be? The Lili Koi Love and the Hawaiian Sunset. And is there one that you consider sort of the flagship like product that most people order or how does that? It's tough. There's a lot of them that are neck and neck. I would say the Lili Koi Love, the Hawaiian Sunset, definitely. And right behind those would be Hawaiian Holiday and Mai Tai. I would imagine that the Japanese consumer really likes the Konokopi too. And the Lili Koi. OK, great. Before we wrap up today's episode, can we put up slide number one and show how we can find Kelly and buy some of these candles and sprays? North Shore Candle Company. You have a great website, northshorecandlecompany.com. This is your phone number, the email address, northshorecandlecompanyatgmail.com. Great. Thank you very much for coming by and showing us these wonderful products. I hope everybody rushes out and buys some candles and sprays today. They smell fantastic. And with that, we are going to wrap up this episode of Exporting from Hawaii. Thank you again, Mahalo, for being here. And we'll see everybody back again in two weeks. Mahalo.