What being an English Candle Manufacturer means to us this St George's

This St George's Day we're shining the spotlight on what it means to us to be candle makers in England, and the local businesses we are proud to support in producing our UK county-inspired candles, reed diffusers and soap bars.

Why is it important to us that our candles are made in England?

When we first had the idea for the Home County Co. back in 2018 - creating county candles inspired by, and named after, each of the UK's most beautiful counties - we were faced with the option of outsourcing production overseas or learning the art of candle making ourselves, and building a specialist team in-house.

Had we decided to have our candles produced overseas, whilst upfront costs would have been higher to meet manufacturer MOQs (minimum order quantities), we would undoubtedly have saved huge costs in the long term. For example, we'd be able to rent a much smaller warehouse to fulfil the products from (the majority of the space we currently pay for is for raw material storage and manufacturing space), and we'd also save on the costs of our staff to manufacture, label and box the products.

Sounds good, right?

And here comes our great big HOWEVER...

This just didn't sit right with us.

Firstly, the entire concept of our brand was to make beautiful products that were truly inspired by UK counties - for example, Bakewell Tart for Derbyshire, Yorkshire Rose for Yorkshire and Heather and Gorse for the Highlands.

The idea of then designing those products in the Home Counties and having them made thousands of miles away by strangers totally disconnected from the brand didn't make us feel good, and as brand owners we ALWAYS want to feel good about the decisions we're making for our company. It can't just be us who rolls their eyes whenever they see products plastered with "designed in the UK", which can be misleading to customers who rightfully look out for products made close to home - after all designed in and made in are two very different things.

Secondly, outside of the icky feeling it gave us, there were huge environmental factors to consider. How could we truly sell, for example, Bedfordshire Honey & Nectar Fruits candles, inspired by busy Bedfordshire bumblebees, and then have those products produced and shipped in a way that might actually damage the bee population here in the UK? It just didn't make any sense to us.

And so, we set out to hone the craft of candle making from our kitchen in Hertfordshire, and boy did we hone it...

Now lucky enough to have a wonderful in-house team manufacturing our candles in Buckinghamshire, we've also made beautiful bespoke candles for the likes of Buckingham Palace, English Heritage and Chelsea Football Club. Whilst we credit our own obsession with process and perfectionism, we certainly couldn't do it without the very best suppliers and raw materials.

So, where do we source our candle supplies from?

Equally as important as making the products here in the UK, we've always been careful to source from within the UK too. Not only does this support fellow British businesses, it also keeps carbon emmissions down if supplies don't have to be flown to us, and means taxes like VAT and Corporation Tax are paid to the UK government.

Here is a spotlight on some of our favourite British suppliers...

A person pouring a yellow substance, likely wax, into a small glass container, with other glasses arranged around the table as if for a candle-making workshop.

Soy Wax from Surrey: The British Wax Refining Company

Unsurprisingly, as a British candle manufacturer, we go through A LOT of wax, and so it is vital to us that we're using the best candle wax in each and every one of our county-inspired candles. When deciding between harmful paraffin wax vs. 100% natural soy wax, it was a no-brainer, and we're proud to partner with The British Wax Refining Company, who have been refining natural waxes in Surrey for over 100 years.

"We believe it is our collective responsibility to live on this planet without negatively impacting it. For this reason we focus strategically on being the leading wax supplier of natural and sustainable materials."

The British Wax Refining Company

A Home County Co. county soap bar is shown unwrapped, sitting in its white ceramic soap dish from Sting in the Tail next to a tiled kitchen sink.

Soap Noodles from Yorkshire: John Drury & Co.

Founded in 1882, John Drury & Co. are a leading manufacturer of soap base ingredients, and we are proud to source the 'noodles' (yes, who knew that's what pellets of soap bar base would be called?!) from such a well-established supplier based in God's own country of Yorkshire. When sourcing the base for our County Soap Bars we knew it was important that they were vegan and vegetarian friendly (so many contain tallow, which is a rendered beef or mutton fat). We worked with the team at John Drury & Co to land on our beautiful glycerine-based, SLS and Paraben Free soap noodles, which provide a gorgeous, natural lather without the need for chemicals to create the bubbles!

"We believe that we all play a part to play in lessening environmental erosion and that it is important to work with our suppliers and customers alike to protect our environment for our future generations. We also believe that Great Britain makes great products with the help of great people."

John Drury & Co.

Fragrance Oils from across the United Kingdom

Easily the most common question we're asked is how we come up with the fragrances that we link to each of our County Collection products. For example, "why Cream Tea for Devon?" And our answer is simple: we set out to create fragrances that truly resonate with the people who live in and/or love the county it is named after. Therefore, we never just look through a list of fragrances on a website, or a catalogue from a fragrance house to bring out the same bestsellers every other candle brand stocks. Instead, we come up with the story for the county first. So, taking Devon as an example - did you know that the English staple of a Cream Tea originates back to Tavistock Abbey in the 11th century, where monks and workers at the Abbey enjoyed a tradition of eating bread with cream and jam - a tradition which is said to have evolved into the delicious treat we still enjoy today in our millions. Now, you certainly won't find a Cream Tea fragrance oil in the brochures of every fragrance house! So, we work with three wonderful fragrance houses who manufacture here in the UK, and whenever we have a new 'scent story' for a county, we go out to them with the story, and they provide us with samples which we tweak until they are absolutely perfect at encompassing the spirit of the county we are representing.

We could go on and on about the British suppliers we're lucky to interact with day after day - soap wraps printed in Hertfordshire; candle wicks from Derbyshire; labels and packaging sleeves from Cambridgeshire and greeting cards printed in Somerset from paper stock produced in the Lake District. We hope you can see a) how proud we are to be a candle manufacturer based in Buckinghamshire and b) how much it means to us to support fellow British makers whilst we continue doing what we love most. In a world where every TikTok and YouTube video tells you how to get rich by sourcing your products from overseas and selling them on TikTok shop, we'll continue to have the stiff upper lip, plugging away with smaller margins but much bigger values, which we hope to pass down for generations to come.

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