Team Canada trade mission good fit for Burnt Out Solutions
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President of Burnt Out Solutions Perley Beairsto:
"we focus on our products and our staff." |
As published in NovaNewsNow.com
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Brent Fox
Their products are healthy and smell great. What’s more, Burnt Out Solutions representatives are taking part in the Team Canada Atlantic trade mission to Florida.
Sponsored by ACOA and other agencies and the four Atlantic Provinces, the mission goes from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2.
Founded in 2000, Burnt Out Solutions manufactures soy candles and soaps at its New Minas facility and exports them to other parts of Canada as well as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The company has its factory and a retail store out front on Jones Road, New Minas.
Depending on orders and the season, the company employs five to 15 employees.
Burnt out Solutions president Perley Beairsto said, “we manufacture soy wax candles and soaps, and we do it right here.
“We focus on our products and our staff, and we’ve positioned ourselves well.”
Providing a quality and environmentally friendly product and being socially conscious, the company continues to grow. “We have committed ourselves to putting out a good product and our sales have to go outside,” Beairsto said.
The soy wax products are all different sizes and include scented candles, melts and soaps.
Soy wax is healthier and burns cleaner than paraffin, which is a carcinogen, Beairsto noted.
Many of the soaps, bath balsams and candles are directed to the spa market. Other products go to the private label markets, mostly in the United States.
As well, the company makes products for the tourism market, including for some high-end hotels, and there’s a line of products for Canada for each province and the Yukon. They’re scented with the provincial flowers
Flexibility a factor
The company is flexible and can fill orders for a few dozen to 100,000. “That’s our strong point,” Beairsto said.
He noted the size of the local market and those outside mean that Burnt Out Solutions is an exporter. “Most of our products are exported to the United States and we’ve had sales to the United Kingdom for the first time this year. The UK sales are a direct result of assistance by NSBI and ACOA,” he said.
The UK market is a good one for the company because it tends to be more environmentally conscious than others. Though transportation of raw materials to the site is expensive, as are export costs, there are benefits of operating in the province.
There’s a certain cachet to the province’s name, he noted. “Nova Scotia is widely recognized. More people know about us when compared with other parts of Canada.”
The Florida mission is expected to result in firming up preliminary contacts made earlier this year. The company pays its own way on the mission, but it’s worth the investment.
Beairsto noted that in such areas, one contract leads to another. As well, “when you go as a group, you make more impact than if you go singly.”
At the same time, “people know you’re coming and why. That link is worth its weight in gold, but it’s up to us to close the sale.”
