Yankee Candle A Wicked Growth Record
How a Christmas present for Mom grew into a $100 million business to which no one can hold a candle.
Mike Kittredge, founder of Yankee Candle, always had a flair for marketing. At the age of 12, he organized his own rock ‘n roll band called "The Bristol Curries." Mike crafted the whole image of the band and began surprisingly successfully, winning third place in the 1965 statewide Battle of the Bands competition.
When the band split up in 1969, Mike found himself short of Christmas cash. Undaunted, he melted his childhood crayons to make a candle for his mother. A visiting neighbor admired the candle and bought it. Mike used the proceeds to make two more candles, one for Mom and another to sell. After graduating from high school, Mike attended college but he never gave up candle making. By 1972 candles, wax, and equipment filled his family’s house and garage.
Moving Away from Mom
Eventually, Mike rented a 2,000-square-foot space, where he had to install his own running water, electricity, heat and toilets, in a dilapidated old paper mill in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and his parents got their home and garage back. During 1976, Kittredge doubled the original factory space and hired his first assistants. By 1983, he had 30 employees working on all four floors of the building and Yankee Candle had to move to bigger digs an 11-acre site in South Deerfield, Massachusetts.
The First Store Opens
On November 5, 1983, the company opened a 2,000-square-foot Yankee Candle retail store and two months later its 30,000-square-foot factory began operations. Since then, both the store and the factory have been expanded
dozens of times.By 1993, the South Deerfield site had grown to encompass a Bavarian Christmas Village with 30,000 square feet of retail space. In 1994, Yankee Candle moved all production to a 285,000-square-foot facility in neighboring Whateley. Then in 1995, the company further expanded its South Deerfield location with the opening of Chandler’s, a fine-food, full-service restaurant featuring a dining room primarily lit by candles. In August of that year came the Yankee Candle Car Museum, with more than 70 vintage and exotic automobiles.
Headquarters Continues to Expand
During 1996, a major expansion called the Bavarian Kringle Market added 33,000 square feet to the bustling flagship retail store. The flagship store has become a must-see stop for visitors to western Massachusetts, attracting more than two million people annually. It is the second largest tourist destination in New England. Also located at the site of the flagship store are Santa’s Toy
Factory, Nutcracker Castle, and The Wax & Tallow Shoppe Candlemaking Museum, along with several other attractions.Well Rounded Merchandise Mix
Candles are the mainstay of a Yankee Candle store’s merchandise mix, however the inventory is rounded out with accessories and gift baskets. Leaping beyond the Massachusetts border, the company jumped into the retail arena. Today, Yankee Candle is a privately held, vertically integrated manufacturer and wholesaler with 52 retail stores operating in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Vermont. It also has an international division with limited distribution in Europe, the Mideast and the Pacific Rim. Gross sales for the retail and wholesale divisions are in excess of $100 million annually.
Criteria for Site Selection
For a retail location, the company typically signs a seven-year lease and uses between 1,200 and 2,000 square feet. Demographic requirements include a population of 350,000 within five miles, with an average income of $45,000 per household. Expansion plans call for 40 to 45 new retail sites in 1999. The company will explore expansion opportunities in specialty centers and malls nationally.
For more information contact Anthony Villani, Yankee Candle Company, Box 110, Route 5, South Deerfield, Massachusetts, 01373; or by phone at 413-665-8306, Fax 413-665-8569.