FOAM2FLAME
Diversifying a beer distribution business with brew-inspired candles
For years, Michelle Dangelo Arnoni made candles as a diversion to relieve stress after workdays spent helping to manage her family’s West Mifflin beer distribution business.
Then she found a way to combine her hobby with the business she grew up in: creating candles that have scents inspired by spicy and fruity craft beer flavors. Think Nut Brown Ale and Cherry Wheat — two of the aromas available from Ms. Arnoni’s startup venture, Brewed2Burn.
The company’s recent launch was timely, Ms. Arnoni said, because a change in state law has cut into small beer distributors’ sales and where they can sell major beer brands. It’s a good time to diversify.
The idea to infuse beer-inspired fragrances into candles first came to her about three years ago as she observed the explosive demand for craft brews. At the family-owned and -operated Brentwood Distributing, Ms. Arnoni is vice president of sales and marketing.
Brentwood Distributing delivers 2,000 brands of beer — from national labels like Budweiser to microbrews, as well as some nonalcoholic specialty drinks and waters — to restaurants and bars mainly in the six-county Pittsburgh region.
After her wedding last October, Ms. Arnoni, 37, decided it was time to finally pursue what she calls “my passion project.”
Over the winter months, she began developing a prototype by experimenting with wax, wicks and combinations of scented oils. She ordered glass beer bottles, had them professionally cut to remove the necks, and — with the help of family members — produced close to 700 candles available for sale on Brewed2Burn’s website and in a handful of specialty retailers when the business formally launched in May.
Ms. Arnoni uses soy wax so the candles burn cleanly and burn longer — for 60 hours or twice as long as most traditional paraffin-based candles, she said.
While they are more expensive to produce, she wanted an environmentally conscious candle “especially for people with kids in the house … you don’t want that black soot.”
For her first couple of production runs, she ordered bottles from a company outside of Pittsburgh but is in the process of switching to a local supplier, Berlin Packaging of Bridgeville.
Using a commercial vat, Ms. Arnoni melts 100 pounds of wax, adds the fragrant oils, then hand pours the scented wax into bottles and glues the wicks — also by hand — to the candles.
Seasonal offerings, just like craft brews
Besides Nut Brown Ale and Cherry Wheat, Brewed2Burn’s four other signature scents are Amber Ale, Gingered Apple Cider, Oatmeal Stout and Vanilla
Dark, a lager-scented candle, and Tangerine Swirl Coffee Porter. and Citradelic with scents
She plans to debut a based on Penn’s lighter Spiced Pumpkin Porter brews. candle by the end of August While Brewed2Burn is and will introduce winter not the first artisan, beerinspired scents by October to tap candle brand — into the holiday shopping other makers include Cool season. “We’re really just Material, Barley & Hops doing what the beer industry Craft Beer Candles, and does with flavors,” she Swag Brewery — Ms. noted. Arnoni is confident her
The 8.5-ounce candles sell candles can capture a for $ 21.50 through share of the vast container Brewed2Burn’swebsite and candle market. The National are priced at about $25 in Candle Association boutiques, including love, in Washington, D.C., estimates Pittsburgh in Mount Washington; annual candle sales Rosebud’s, Aspinwall; in the U.S. at $3 billion, and Lucy Rae Gifts & candles are found in seven More, Indiana, Pa.; Silver out of 10 U.S. households. Horse Coffee, Donegal; and Brewed2Burn’s candles Emma’s Shoes in Mandeville, may even appeal to nonbeer near New Orleans, La. drinkers because the scents
The business is negotiating were specifically created to an agreement with an evoke the spices and fruits online retailer that would in craft beers — not the alcohol. sell Brewed2Burn products exclusively on Amazon. Ms. Arnoni, who said shecom. invested about $20,000 in
Ms. Arnoni hopes to grab equipment, ingredients, design a share of the enormous and labels to get wedding industry by offering Brewed2Burn up and running, personalized candles hopes to grow her candle that can be used as guest favors line into a national and for bridesmaids’ brand. To achieve that, and groomsmen’s gifts. It she’s looking to hire employees recently completed its first to help with production wedding order, which included and is scouting for custom-labeled candles larger space than she’s using for a reception held — near Brentwood Distributing. fittingly — at Church Brew Works in Lawrenceville.
Another niche market is brewery gift shops and pubs. For Penn Brewery on The entrepreneurial nature the North Side,nature of the venture suits her Brewed2Burn created Penn because she’s the fourth
New state law hits beer sales
generation of Dangelos involved in the family-owned business.
Their connection with beer goes back to the 1930s, right after Prohibition ended, when her greatgrandfather bought Valley Beer in Wilmerding. In 1956, her grandfather, Fred Dangelo, acquired Brentwood Distributing.
Under management by her father, Fred Dangelo Jr., and his sister, Debra Strittmatter, the business grew from the home trade to a commercial distributor for restaurants and taverns.
Ms.Arnoni came on board at age 25 after earning a degree in urban planning at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a couple of years in thereal estate industry.
Her father assigned her to work every job in the place “except for driving the truck” she said. When she started in sales, she faced resistance because she was among the few women in the industry.
But more than a decade later, she believes she has gained the confidence of clients and customers. As head of sales and marketing, Ms. Arnoni is seeking ways to diversify the company’s portfolio — a strategy that has become more critical since a new state law took effect in January that limits the geographic areas in which retail distributors can sell beer.
Prior to the legislation, Brentwood was licensed to sell brands that the business obtained from the large master brand wholesalers anywhere in the state. That meant Brentwood could distribute Budweiser in Washington County or Miller Lite in Indiana County, for instance.
But the new law stipulates that products can be delivered only in the counties or areas where master wholesalers are licensed to sell them.
So if a wholesaler that suppliesBudweiser to Brentwood is licensed to sell only in Allegheny County, that’s the only place Brentwood can distribute it.
Since the law took effect, Brentwood has lost about 10 percent to 15 percent of sales, Ms. Arnoni estimated. She declined to disclose revenues of the private business.
Because the new regulation doesn’t impact nonalcoholic beverages, Ms. Arnoni is aggressively trying to expand those offerings. Brentwood already distributes drinks from Stumptown Cold Brew Coffee and Republic of Tea, and high-end waters, including Fred, a distilled water sold in flasks, and British water brands Ty Nant and Tau.
“It’s a blessing that we started diversifying when we did,” she said. CANDLES, FROM G-1