The Yankee Candle Company, a leader in home fragrance and part of the Newell Brands global portfolio of brands, has announced the expanded availability of its products to retailers and consumers in Canada.
This announcement marks a significant business growth opportunity as Canadian retailers and consumers previously had limited access to Yankee Candle products in the market, and Canada is one of Newell Brands’ top international markets, said the company in a news release on Tuesday.
“In 2023, Newell Brands unveiled a new corporate strategy that disproportionately invests in top brands and geographies, including Yankee Candle and Canada, brand-building and go-to-market excellence. Over the past year, the company has been increasing the distribution of its brands into fast-growing channels and focusing efforts on winning retailer space through powerful shopper insights and innovations backed by extensive marketing campaigns,” it said.
“Yankee Candle’s increased availability in Canada is an exciting milestone for the brand as there is unlocked potential in the market,” said Jenny Leach, Vice President and General Manager of Newell Brands Canada. “Canadian consumers once had to go to great lengths to purchase Yankee Candle products through third-party vendors or travel to the U.S. to sample different scents. Now consumers will have multiple channels to purchase their favorite scents in-store and online.”
Yankee Candle said it prides itself on its commitment to quality and fragrances developed based on consumer behaviors and lifestyle trends. The Yankee Candle team’s shopper insight research showed strong buying potential by Canadian consumers seeking premium fragrance products and an unlocked ability to grow the candle category in Canada. The launch is set for Fall 2024, as consumers eagerly anticipate purchasing their favorite holiday seasonal scents.
“It’s part of the research we did as we were building our strategic plan to enter the category in Canada. Through our research, one of the things that we found is that Canadians have 55 per cent brand awareness of Yankee Candle and we’re a top consumer in Canada of candles,” said Leach. “So it just made all the sense for us to enter the category in Canada which we haven’t been. It’s the number one top loved candle in the U.S. It’s been there for 50 years so we have a history of quality and fragrance that we get to lean on here in Canada. It’s absolutely a brand that’s very well known and loved in Canada as well.”
“The Yankee Candle brand has been a household name in the U.S. for over 50 years, and Canadian consumers have been eagerly awaiting better access to our products, so feel that we are set up for a strong start and overall long-term growth,” said Aaron Swart, General Manager of Home Fragrance, Newell Brands. “We’re always exploring new ways to evolve the brand and product portfolio and offer more choice to our consumers around the world. We look forward to Yankee Candle being the fragrance product of choice for Canadian consumers for many years.”
Leach said this the first real entrance into the Canadian market for the brand.
“We are doing a full activation launch of the brand. We’ve got some really exciting things planned in Q4. We’ve never done that before. Our product’s been available through different channels but we’ve never really invested behind it,” she said. “While we’ve been available somewhat through Amazon over the years, this is the first time you’re really going to see the assortment of fragrances and formats . . . We’re going to be in a few key retailers here in Q4. We’re just getting started coming into the holiday season.
“Many of our retailers are able to take some great off shelf displays that we’re doing for impulse purchase and so we’re in key retailers in Q4 and we’re really looking to expand fully onto shelves in our major Canadian retailers come 2025.”
Yankee Candle products are now available at retailers like Canadian Tire, Staples Canada, London Drugs, Save on Foods, Lawtons Drugs, well.ca and Amazon.ca.
There are more than 200 Yankee Candle stores in the U.S. The company has had stores before in Canada but they haven’t been a strategic focus because the brand wasn’t really launched in Canada.
“So this is our launch now ahead of us. Our focus is on the retail partners . . . From there we’ll see where we go from our own channel perspective.”
According to the company, it was Christmas 1969 and 16-year-old Mike Kittredge, too broke to buy his mother a present, melted some crayons to make her a candle. A neighbour saw it and convinced Mike to sell the candle to her. With that small stake, he bought enough wax to make two candles — one for his mom, and another to sell. That was the birth of Yankee Candle.
“Yankee Candle has become the most recognized name in the candle business and the country’s best-selling candle brand. Today, with over 600 fragrances, we offer a wide range of seasonal and specialty scented candles, home and car fragrance products, and candle accents and accessories,” said the brand.
“The majority of our candles are made by master chandlers (candlemakers) in Massachusetts. Our candles and accessories can be found in our nationwide base of over 200 company owned stores. We also have a vibrant catalog and online business, and an expanding North American wholesale customer network that includes over 14,000 specialty retailers in the U.S.
“The future looks bright for new growth and expanding opportunities as we continue to write new chapters in this true American success story.”
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