About Us-Bitter Creek Candle Supply

About Us

Bitter Creek Candle Supply .

Company History.....

Rich Hansen, first became interested in candlemaking as a hobby. Searching the internet for sources of instructions and information, he found a site called The Candle Cauldron™, where he learned all about the art of candlemaking. He caught on to the craft very quickly, but soon realized that there were very few good sources for supplies at the time, and that those available were limited in their selection and somewhat expensive. The industry definitely needed a good honest & reputable supplier. So he decided he would invest in buying his supplies in bulk so he could save money in the long run by selling what he didn't use himself to other candlemakers who wanted to save some money.

In 1998 he enlisted the help of Doneen St.John, creator of The Candle Cauldron™, as his webmaster, and had a website created for what began as just a part-time side business. As more & more candlemakers became aware of the selection of high quality supplies he was offering to others at such a great savings, interest grew rapidly, and before he knew it, Bitter Creek Candle Supply was born! This soon became a full time business for both of us.

Since then, our company has grown from only a couple of part time employees to an average of around 30 - 40 full time employees! Due to a lot of hard work and dedication, we have quadrupled in size and have become one of the largest candle suppliers online today! In July of 1999, the company moved to a new building in Ashland Wisconsin, and after shortly out growing it, added on a new 6,000 square foot warehouse facility. Only a few months later in 2000 we outgrew our facilities again, and built another 8,000 square foot warehouse! Throughout that year we had many new expansions including building new larger areas for our packing & re-packaging departments, and moving & remodeling our fragrance department to make room for our ever growing line. During 2001, we expanded and remodeled our back office area, and in 2002 we finished building our third 14,000 square foot warehouse addition! In 2003 we built yet another 4,000 square foot building, for a total of approximately 37,000 square feet! We moved our administrative offices to a building next door and have converted our old front office to a showroom where customers can come see some of our products on display, including a a sample sniffing station that will include all of the fragrances from both BC North and BC South! As of January 2003 we bought out another supplier and launched Bitter Creek South in Houston Texas, which we have since moved to a new 20,000 square foot warehouse! There is also a showroom at the new BC South building which includes sniffing samples of both fragrance lines, glassware, and other products too! In 2005 we obtained exclusive rights to carry the Wick Your Wax line of fragrances at BC North, and in March 2006 we bought out another supplier, Bubbles n' Lights, and we now carry their line of fragrances at BC North.

At Bitter Creek, having low prices doesn't mean low quality! We are able to offer the best quality products at such great prices because of our bulk buying power. We sample and test products from all over the country and all over the world to find you the best! And being candlemakers ourselves, we have the experience to know what you want! Our goal is to offer our customers the highest quality products on the market, the best selection anywhere, and the highest level of customer service & satisfaction possible. Customers are more than just numbers to us, and we value your business whether you spend ten dollars or a thousand dollars. We believe in honesty and professionalism, not misleading customers or knocking the competition in order to get business! We believe in being different than the rest, and we enjoy bringing you the most unique and hard to find products you don't find elsewhere. We are in a state of constant improvement, always "finding new ways to serve you better".

When you buy from BC, you can feel secure in knowing that you're buying from a dependable and reputable company, not a fly-by-night business that might not be around tomorrow! We are incorporated, listed with Dun & Bradstreet, and are members of the Better Business Bureau and the National Candle Association (NCA). Our customer base has grown to well over 50,000 people in the U.S., Canada and at many other countries around the world. We carry over 2,000 different products, over 400 fragrances, and we ship hundreds of orders every day! We've been around longer than most, and you can count on us to be here for you in the future!

We have become a staple in the candlemaking community and have helped many small businesses grow & succeed in the industry. We dedicate much of our personal time to helping candlemakers through building & maintaining several educational non-profit websites, such as LeadFreeCandles.Org, and GelCandlemaking.Com. I (Doneen) truly enjoy creating and providing these free resources to candlemakers, and helping them succeed and promoting safety is very important to me. Rich and I have made this not just a business, but a way of life! We pride ourselves on our dedication to the candle industry, and we are confident that our customers make a good decision by using our company. We look forward to becoming your one stop supply source and to being of service to you for many years to come!