So, how was 2024?
Little Bit Different candles had a busy 2024.
Well, firstly, I am still in denial that it is 2025, where is the time going. I thought I should do a round up of the highlights of 2024 before we hit March! Although we are a small family candle making business based in Swansea in South Wales we ended the year with stockist in England.
Little Bit Different candles January 2024
We started 2024 with the launch of the new labels for our core Welsh range. They were designed in 2017 by a designer friend but needed a refresh to sit better with the ranges we had designed inhouse . The textured paper and modern design coupled with the much loved fragrances ensured they were a hit with stockists and online customers alike.
We made the snowy trek up to North Wales for the North Wales trade fair in Llandudno. Luckily the snow didn’t get too heavy and we made it home a few days later. It was great to see many of our existing customers and meet some new ones too.
Also in January was the South Wales trade fair. It was a great chance for our local customers to come and test out our whole range in person and place orders. We have approaching 70 fragrances in our own ranges so there are a lot to choose from.
Febraury 2024
We were lucky enough to be chosen to attend a meet the buyer event at the Botanical gardens in LLanarthne. This was a fabulous opportunity to network with lots of other Welsh businesses that don’t attend the other fairs.
Once work got back to normal after the trade events work got started on the first white label and bespoke orders of the year.
Vicky attended a meeting at Llandaff Cathedral with samples and container ideas. It was decided that we would create a tin can style candle using our memories label and also an amber glass candle in two different sizes and fragrances. The label would be the Cathedrals logo in white on a clear label. We were able to adjust to logo using Adobe Illustrator so the flickering flame shone through the windows of the Cathedral on the label. We are pretty proud of them.
Little Bit Different candles March 2024
We have stocked the main gift shop at St Fagans museum of Welsh life for a number of years. We were asked at the end of 2023 to create new ranges for their other onsite shops, Siop Loisin and Gwalia Stores and also the new pub The Vulcan. It was a huge honour to be trusted to create so many products for the busiest tourist attraction in Wales. We were initially only creating the candles with the labels being designed within St Fagans. Two weeks before delivery we were asked to design and print all the labels too. This meant three for Gwalia Stores, eight for Siop Loisin, three for Gwalia stores and three for the main gift shop. There were some very long days over the following two weeks but we got everything delivered in person with a few days to spare.
April to August 2024
With the bespoke and white label side of the business getting busier and busier we decided to streamline our own ranges. Vicky decided to remove diffusers and melts as they were a lot less popular than candles and took up a lot of space in production.
Over the next few months we began creating candles for a number of new bespoke and white label customer. The very cool and laid back Salty Spaniel create the most wonderful designs which we label our candles with for them to sell in Saundersfoot.
Next was Across the pond who have a large number of different fragrances created by us. They design the labels and we send the artwork to our printers to ensure a high end finish.
Oh, Cheeky Zebra, what a joy Sasha is to work with. Her candles are so much cheekier than anything we normally work on. We really love seeing what she does with the blank candles we send her.
Next we worked on three candle fragrances for our favourite shop in Tenby Two Red Dogs. Their surf vibe works so well with the fragrances they choose. Again we print their label artwork and apply to the candles for our high end finish.
Little Bit Different candles September 2024
Another dream came true when we created a Barti Rum fragranced candle for West Wales rum maker Barti Rum. Vicky had met them earlier in the year at the meet the buyer event in the Botanical gardens. Getting the email asking us to start work on the candles ready for the Christmas season was so exciting. The bottle of rum they sent us in the name of research was pretty good too!
Amid the excitement of the Barti candle we added four additions to our amber glass art deco candles.
October 2024
Vicky worked toward the Gold award for Carmarthenshire tourism ambassador plus the bronze and silver awards . If you want information on where to visit for a nice day out or a weekend break she is your woman. She knows a fair bit about the history of Carmarthenshire and the best place for a cake and coffee now too.
After debating the pros and cons of online wholesale website we decided to give Faire a try. They were offering to do the set up for us and like most small businesses we are time poor. It has proved a good fit for us as we have gained lots of lovely new stockists from the site.
November
In November Vicky created a huge order of three types of candle for the business coach Samantha Hearne. We printed all the labels and were even able to add a QR code to an event she was running on the back of the candles.
Little Bit Different’s first English stockists joined us from Faire. Having only sold to bricks and mortar stockists in Wales for the last fourteen years this was a really big step forward for us. We hope to build on this in 2025.
In 2024 we gained nine new stockists and eight new bespoke/white label brands
We made two additions to the Christmas movie range, The Polar Express and It’s a Wonderful Life. Muppet Christmas Carol out sold all the other Christmas move by a HUGE amount. It’s one of our favourites so we were glad our customers felt the same. It does smell soooo good too.
With the finale airing on Christmas day we couldn’t help ourselves and created three Gavin and Stacey candles featuring quotes from Nessa and Smithy. Why don’t Gavin or Stacy get any good lines?
December 2024
We organised the Not Your Average Christmas fair for the fifth time. The quality of small creative businesses involved was amazing. It is our proudest moment of the year.
Bringing so many people together in such a festive setting is magical. The choirs were fabulous, the stall holders were hard working, talented and funny, it was just a lovely thing to do.
The day after the fair we Popped up in Dobbies garden centre to meet more customers face to face. We have both been going to Dobbies since it opened as Wyevale when were little. It was a strange moment actually having our business set up in store. Sadly Vicky was stuck down by a horrible flu. Despite being a workaholic made of steel we were unable to be there for two of our seven days. We managed to make the best of it though.
2025 ended with Little Bit Different having our best Christmas in fourteen years. That is an unbelievable thing to be able to say in the UK at the moment. Vicky and Chris don’t take it for granted. It takes a huge amount of work and stress to keep a small business afloat let alone profitable at the moment. SO, thank you for your support, we appreciate everyone who plays a part in Little Bit Different making it to it’s fifteenth year.
To find out more about our white label candle service go to www.littlebitwhitelabel.co.uk
Diolch/Thank you
Vicky and Chris