Melting hearts
Down syndrome candle workers an inspiration
In 21⁄ years, Downlights, which employs 2 young adults with Down syndrome, has gone from selling 70 candles a week to making 2000 luxury candles a week, many of which are sold around the world.
The successful social enterprise began after Jennifer Del Bel, who already owned candlemaking company Illumina, met Auckland father Tony Sykes who had been trying to find work for his daughter Emma, who has Down syndrome.
Sykes had decided candlemaking was a way to provide Emma with skills, confidence and an income, and Del Bel – disgusted by the lack of response to his efforts – offered her an opportunity.
The business has grown with Del Bel as managing director, and Tony and Emma Sykes as co-founders.
‘‘People come in to our factory, and they’ve seen everybody working, and when you do that you’re actually pretty moved by their passion, and their joy, and their love for the job, and their appreciation for it, and it’s really humbling, it really puts so much into perspective,’’ Del Bel said.
Demand for the product was high locally, ‘‘and the interest overseas is pretty insane’’.
The company’s success was a combination of Del Bel’s experience in running a candlemaking business, the luxury hand-poured product, and its commitment to young people with Down syndrome.
‘‘A quarter of the population has a disability, so everybody knows someone with a disability, but we still don’t talk about it,’’ she said.
‘‘The original story of a dad who wants to help his daughter pulls on people’s heartstrings, it really does, but it’s true, and what evolved out of it has become so much bigger than that story about Emma.
‘‘She’s a lovely young woman, but beside her you now look at the stories of the other people who are coming through with us.’’
In the United States, for example, social enterprise was not a part of the country’s culture. It was just one area where Downlights gets a lot of emails of encouragement, support, ‘‘and almost astonishment, that’s the word that comes to mind – people just can’t believe we’re doing what we’re doing’’, she said.
‘‘Things like us paying the living wage, that means a lot to people overseas.
‘‘So that’s really making a big statement in the business world globally. We’ve been invited to major international companies to speak about the example that we set as a brand, but also for other companies as a benchmark for inclusivity.’’
When the country went into lockdown, Del Bel frantically got ready for a surge in demand, and she was proven right – there was a 1700 per cent increase in online sales in the first month of Covid.
The day the lockdown eased, Downlights moved into bigger premises.
‘‘I think we were one of the lucky businesses with Covid, in that we were running a capitalraising at the time lockdown was announced, we were at a point where we were really pushing social media as part of our marketing strategy stronger than we would have been pushing.’’
Downlights has outgrown its manufacturing processes, and is currently trying to raise $40,000 through PledgeMe to import a much bigger wax melter from the United States.
‘‘The people we have working with us now find the hand-pouring quite strenuous on their arms when they’re doing it over and over again. The wax melter we’re looking at getting will increase our capacity to 1000 units in an hour, as opposed to a couple of thousand a week,’’ she said. ‘‘We would essentially have the capacity to be the biggest [candle] contract manufacturer in New Zealand. That secures the business long term, going forward.
‘‘But the biggest thing for me from that social impact side of the business, it means that everyone in our business has the opportunity to pour candles really comfortably, and successfully, so they’re not making spills, they’re not stressing about when they need to stop pouring.’’
The owner of Ethique, Brianne West, saw the PledgeMe campaign and is giving Downlights a 100kg melter she isn’t using to tide them over.
West said she loved what Downlights was doing, and was delighted to support them.
‘‘By her giving us this machine out of the total generosity of her heart, she’s allowing us to increase our production by three times, prior to Christmas. She’s saving my business right now,’’ said Del Bel.
There are a few strands to the business, which has gone from having 75 retail stockists pre-Covid to more than 200.
The company has just launched a new retail line – ‘‘Covid was a weird time to make a decision to go ‘we’re going to push and go forward’, but I thought, yeah’’ – and will expand into exporting next year.
It has a fundraising division, and also does contract manufacturing for luxury retailers who want to have their own candle brand, or for hotels, spas, and beauty therapists.
As part of its values, Downlights also uses goods and services from other social enterprises, for example coffee beans from disability inclusive Lower Hutt roastery Able Coffee Collaborative, through the Lucy Foundation; and using young photographer of the year Becki Moss, who lives with and is an advocate for people with chronic illness.
Downlights is also part of the certification programme forA¯ kina, a social enterprise procurement platform for businesses.
Winning this year’s Diversity Awards’ Breaking Barriers award was a major milestone.
‘‘I knew we were going to grow big, but I didn’t think we would become this much of a role-model company,’’ said Del Bel.
‘‘That set a bit of a hallmark for me, that we are being recognised for making a difference.’’
Del Bel is also a finalist in next month’s Attitude Awards, in the Impact section.
‘‘I didn’t think we would become this much of a role-model company.’’ Jennifer Del Bel