2014 is the 20th anniversary of Honey Candles. Present owners Roy and Leah Honkanen have been making beeswax candles for Honey Candles since 2000. In 2002 they took over the entire business and have evolved Honey Candles Ltd. into what it is today.
I started working in sales with Honey Candles in 2004. The Honey Candles label looked very different then. After spending some time recently going through our photo archives I found this natural group photo from that time. It thought it would be fun to share. The labels were smaller. There was a ‘cartoony’ type bee and flower. This was the label that came with the business in 2000 and by the time I arrived on the scene Roy and Leah were already planning on how to transition to a more sophisticated look without losing the Honey Candles identity.
The next step was to make the bee more realistic, stylize the flower and in general make it look more modern. The colors of burgundy and gold were retained. This new look came out in the 2006 catalog. At the same time we wanted another ‘look’ for Honey Candles – we introduced a second label. Just like that we had the Honey Candles Boutique line! The Boutique line featured wraphia and classy little ‘smart cards’. We thought this would appeal to the gift industry. This group photo demonstrates both Original and Boutique labels. About this time we introduced our 'Ornamentals' line - Fluted Spheres, Ponderosa Pine Cones and Yule Trees,
By 2008 it had become too complicated having two labels. Store buyers would sometimes get confused and order a different label than they already had. We had too many skus as many items were in both Original and Boutique styles. Simplification became paramount. The Boutique label was declared ‘out‘ and only the original label was in the 2009 Honey Candles catalog. We also made the big move to no longer distribute products that we didn’t make. We had been distributing as Sunshine Bay Natural Products.
In 2010 we rebranded and dropped the name Sunshine Bay Natural Products. We really simplified and 
became Honey Candles Ltd. We chose to not make palm wax candles anymore. We felt we were back to having a label that was perhaps too simple. We set out to change our look to something clean and sophisticated. We wanted something that enhanced the natural elegance of our beeswax candles. Our tagline became Experience.Pure.Elegance. Roy came up with the idea of having all the attributes of a beeswax candle in words and phrases as part of the label. The Honey Candles team shaped the beautiful Honey Candles label that we have today. The label still features gold and burgundy. The logo is crisp and recognizable.
I am interested in what you might have to say about the evolution of Honey Candles. Do any of you remember the old labels? Do you agree that our present label is elegant yet simple?
For retail stores interested in wholesale beeswax candles our classic beeswax Honey Candles are still our bestsellers. Our classics are all the candlesticks in natural, all three round pillars in natural, and natural tealights and votives. See our on-line store. If you are a store and haven’t registered as a wholesale account please do. You can go to this link. A little reminder, wholesale prices are for retail businesses only. We do not sell wholesale to individuals. If you are a consumer you can buy our bulk beeswax candles in full cases for a 10% discount here.
All beeswax candles made by Honey Candles are made in Canada from 100% pure Canadian beeswax. Who could ask for more?
