Candle-designer putting her community first

“When asked about my business goal, I cannot say what it is in terms of revenue growth, but I can say that my goal is to create a sustainable future for the community by increasing household revenue for the wives of local farmers and those with other jobs to do, and generating income for their families over the long term. This is my business goal,” she told The Nation during a recent interview.
Chalida, 48, started in business in 2005 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the fine arts faculty of Chiang Mai University and then gaining experience as a product designer in handcrafted furniture at an export firm in Chiang Mai for 15 years.
“I was far from my home town from the age of 18, and after graduating I also spent 15 years working in Chiang Mai. But in 2005 I decided to come back to my home town in Ubon Ratchathani province, as I felt inspired to create a business in my home town and also create jobs for my community,” she said.
Ubon Ratchathani is well known for its annual “Candle Festival” to celebrate Buddhist Lent Day, and it was this that inspired her to design candles matching the experience and tradition of the province and its people in this regard.
However, she also wanted to design and produce something that would sell as everyday items, and decided upon scented candles as the natural answer.
She designed and made some candles and sent them to exporters in Chiang Mai, which displayed her wares at an exhibition in the German city of Frankfurt – a move that generated export orders worth Bt10,000, against a start-up cost of only Bt2,000.
After that, she received more orders from several countries, and business grew to the point that she decided to expand her production capacity by training housewives based in her home town, in Det Udom, to make the scented candles.
Dejudom Scented Candle Community Enterprise was formally set up to produce them for domestic sale and export.
The community enterprise started with 25 housewives in 2005, but the number has now risen to more than 100.
Monthly sales range between Bt400,000 and Bt500,000, with up to 80 per cent of the revenue coming from exports to Europe, the United States, Australia and Asian countries.
This generates average income of Bt4,000 and Bt5,000 per month for the housewife members of the enterprise.
“The key to my success is my product design, which is inspired by nature and matches demand from customers both domestically and overseas. This is thanks to the experience I gained from university and working at the handicraft firm in Chiang Mai,” she said.