Lake Forest-based candle maker Flame & Wax Inc., better known as Voluspa, is hoping its celebrity appeal won’t flame out.
Voluspa’s luxury, fragrance-laden candles have been linked to a number of celebrities, including Paula Abdul, Jeremy Piven, Tori Spelling, Andy Dick and Ed Asner.
The candles sell for about $25 a piece, mostly through 3,000 boutiques, as well as major retailers such as Anthropologie, a unit of Philadelphia’s Urban Outfitters Inc., New York-based Bloomingdale’s, Inc. and Seattle’s Nordstrom Inc.
Though the candles can cost twice as much as competitors’ they’ll burn twice as long, cofounder and Chief Executive Troy Arntsen said.
“We can’t sell on name alone,” he said.
This year’s sales of about $10 million are up about 5%, which is slower than last year’s growth of 14% and growth of 35% the year before, Arntsen said.
All of the candles are made in Voluspa’s 30,000-square-foot warehouse where it employs about 50.
During the company’s busy holiday season it extends production from eight hours a day to 12 to handle more orders.
It also does some contract manufacturing for companies such as New York-based Estée Lauder Cos.
Voluspa mostly competes with small, luxury candle makers such as Spartanburg, S.C.-based Votivo LLC. One of the largest competitors is The Yankee Candle Co. in South Deerfield, Mass.
The market for candles is pretty wide, with prices ranging from $1 to $100, Arntsen said.
He runs the company with his wife, Traci, who serves as creative director.
Waste Not, Want Not
Business is expected to more than triple next year for Lake Forest-based Micromedia Filtration Inc.
The maker of wastewater treatment products has orders to design and install treatment plants in 15 to 20 locations in 2010, adding to the four it has up and running now.
The new orders should put it on target for about $30 million in sales, according to Mark Franzen, chief financial officer.
Micromedia bills itself as being able to make wastewater treatment plants that are smaller, more effective and cheaper than those of competitors.
It recently built a 7,500-square-foot plant in San Bernardino County that cleans about 3 million gallons of water a day.
Other locations are in Fontana, Texas and New Hampshire.
The plants start by separating out solid waste, which is ultimately turned into methane gas to power a generator that produces electricity.
Water also is separated and cleansed through a filtration process that uses sand.
The company was founded in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Ken and Yolanda Stedman.
So far, it’s raised about $3 million in funding, which has come from Costa Mesa-based Sail Venture Partners.
Curve Ball
A slower economy has led to fewer baseball sales for Garden Grove-based Pro-Nine Co.
Pro-Nine is one of a handful of baseball makers in the country, all of whom have their manufacturing done in Asia.
Owner and Chief Executive Frank Hardy says his customers have been ordering less and often opt for a lower grade ball.
“People want to make things work a little longer,” he said.
This year the company will take in about $5 million in sales, with growth in the past two years running flat.
Next year the company is coming out with a line of wooden bats to try to spur sales.
Competitors include Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. in St. Louis, Wilson Sporting Goods Co. in Chicago and Diamond Sports in Cypress.
Hardy was the cofounder of Diamond and sold it in 2000 for an undisclosed price.
Pro-Nine tries to gain an edge over competitors by making balls that will hold up longer for the numerous youth league teams that buy them, Hardy said.
All of the 10 workers at Pro-Nine are related to Hardy.
Heating Up
Huntington Beach-based Venture Heated Clothing Inc. wants to expand into the medical field.
The maker of heated clothing, such as gloves and vests worn by outdoorsmen and skiers, is courting chiropractics and doctors to try its products for medical uses.
It only recently started selling heated braces for knees, backs and shoulders.
“This is our new focus,” said Chief Executive Eddie Chen.
Venture’s clothing line has been considered more of a novelty among customers, Chen said.
At $180 for a pair of gloves, which is its most popular item, it mostly sells to the online stores of retailers such as Niles, Ill.-based Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. and Londonderry, N.H.-based Enthusiasts Inc.’s Herrington Catalog.
This year it expects to do as much as $2 million in sales, he said.
Chen, a snowboarder and salesman, founded the six-year-old company after wanting to move away from selling telescopes.
“We wanted to find a niche,” he said. “I was on the slopes one day and thought I was on to something when I wished my clothes were heated.”
The heated clothes rely on carbon fiber panels embedded in the clothing to store the heat, which is powered by lithium batteries.
The idea was first used by American pilots in World War II.
Venture’s clothes are manufactured in China at a plant run by Chen’s parents, who primarily use the site for their own business.
