Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dani Rooney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Dani, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

We are very proud of our continued focus on sustainability at Old Pine Candle Co. Unique from several other candle companies, we keep the environment at the center of all our decisions – from how we manufacture our candles, businesses we partner with and what we offer our customers.

A few examples of how we off-set our impact and work hard to minimize product and packaging waste are:

Our “Buy a Candle, Plant a Tree” Reforestation Program – For every order placed, Old Pine Candle Co plants a tree in honor of our customer. This partnership between us and our customers is made possible via Ecologi and The Eden Reforestation Project. To date, we have planted over 4100 trees together.

Repurposing remnant wax: We use left over wax from our regular production to create our Recycled Candle. And any wax we cannot reuse in our recycled candle gets donated to a local non-profit.

Eco-friendly & Recyclable Packaging: We believe how our candle is packaged and sent is just as important as the candle itself. All our candles are packaged and shipped using eco-friendly supplies from Colorado-based company EcoEnclose.

Jar Recycling Initiatives: We collaborate with local stockists to offer a jar collection program which trades credit toward candles in exchange for cleaned out old jars.

Recycling Education: We provide guidance and tutorials on how candle lovers can recycle their jars with their other glass recyclables.

Our Rebel product line: These “imperfectly perfect” candles are products that did not meet our high quality standards and are offered to customers at a discount. They will burn just as beautifully as our other candles, but maybe have a blemish, bubbled label, etc. This allows us to hold true to our high standards while preventing waste.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Even as a child, the idea of owning a small business spoke to my heart. It felt creative and filled with limitless opportunity. Six years ago, we were making candles for friends and family and we saw an opportunity to create a high-quality candle at an affordable price. We spent a lot of time fine-tuning the formula to get it right. We knew we had something special and Old Pine Candle Co. was born.

Today, our eco-conscious, mountain-inspired, 100% soy candles are hand-poured in a studio above our garage in Evergreen, CO. We offer candles on our website (oldpinecandleco.com) and through a variety of valued stockists.

When we started Old Pine, we knew we wanted to give back and support our passion for the planet. We print the Old Pine Promise on each of our candles, a commitment to helping people shine their light by donating 10% of our annual profits to a person, charity or organization we believe in. Past recipients include Evergreen Sustainability Alliance, an organization close to our heart that focuses on fostering local, sustainable solutions for food resources, waste streams, and energy use in our home of Evergreen, CO.

In addition to our environmental commitments and advocacy, we support local organizations including Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce, Kittredge Civic Association, and Kittredge Community Garden, and are proud of the ongoing impact of our “Buy a Candle, Plant a Tree” reforestation program.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

We proudly hand-pour (manufacture) all our candles. It’s our favorite part of the business! As our business has grown, we have had to learn and adapt our processes to scale along the way. Susan, our production manager, has taken the lead on our scaling efforts through creating an inventory system, managing candle creation timelines, and ensuring timely delivery of supplies – even when faced with unexpected shortages and delays in recent years. I highly value Susan and her ability to plan many steps ahead of our needs. Which was not an easy task especially in the past several years when many candle companies struggled with supply chain issues.

The biggest lesson we’ve faced over these past 5 years is learning to properly value what we provide and offer our customers with our hand-poured, artisan candles. When closely reviewing our costs, at a time when we could not make ends meet, we realized how many costs we did not take into account with initially pricing our candle. We wanted to offer an affordable candle, but quickly realized that we were undercharging. Knowing that if we did not raise our prices to better match up with our costs, our business would fail – we bravely adjusted our pricing. We’re still working through this adjustment, but are grateful our customers value our product enough, understand our position and need to raise prices – that we haven’t had to face many issues. It has been so empowering to finally, for the first time in 5 years, have our pricing correctly reflect the product we love and work so hard to create.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I am not sure if this would be considered a pivot in business, but it is most definitely a pivot in perspective which has tremendously impacted our business. With our recent price increase, I have been able to stand in my own power, for what has felt like the first time as a business owner, and charge what the product is worth. It was scary, but as our tables started turning red – I realized something was not working and how I was undervaluing our time and efforts. I am so proud of the pricing decisions we have made which will allow us to continue to create the candles we, and our customers, love.

Through this process, I also realized I was stuck in an old belief that “You must be doing something wrong, if it’s not easy.” I now understand that getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, having hard conversations and making even harder decisions is part of the journey. With the brave steps we have taken and knowing we will end up where we need to be, we are hopeful it will be a banner year!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.oldpinecandleco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oldpinecandleco/
• Facebook: @oldpinecandleco
• Other: TikTok: @oldpinecandleco

Image Credits
Photos taken by Ele Hart Photography (elehart.com) and being used with permission.