Eimear Wright

EW Owner

Based in Dublin, Eimear Wright is the founder and designer of Eimear Wright, a luxurious range of natural soy wax blended candles and diffusers, which are infused with the finest French essential and fragrant oils.

During her two years of researching the candle industry, Eimear developed her products to the highest quality, creating candles made from natural renewable resources that produce a slow, clean burn. Inspired by the scents and beauty of nature, Eimear Wright’s products feel comforting and familiar.

Eimear has expanded her product range to include soft toys, baby keepsakes and a home wears and decoration collection close to her heart, the Zeus collection, inspired by her beloved French bulldog Zeus, which is a must for dog lovers everywhere.

Background

After earning her degree in Economics & English in UCD, Eimear began her career as key accounts manager for an Irish company, where she spent 20 years. She became the Sales & Marketing Director with responsibility for the home & export market. This led to Eimear opening and developing the QVC account in the U.S. where it involved co-presenting live TV. Due to her success in developing the export market the company won the DHL Export Award in 1996.

“I felt I had gained a huge amount of industry knowledge and had built very good relationships and contacts with people in the gift industry. I always wanted my own business and when the situation presented itself I took a chance and just went for it. The gift industry is what I know best and I took advantage of my strengths to start the business.”

Becoming Self Employed

“I always wanted to have my own business and felt I had the entrepreneurial skills to do it. I come from a family where my father had his own business (publican) and I’m sure this definitely shaped my decision - it was in my DNA. I came to a crossroads and I had to decide do I remain as being an employee of a company or do I set up my own business. It was a risky choice to make – this was the opportunity to decide which road to take - I’m so glad I did it. It gave me the opportunity to explore different opportunities, ideas, products trends etc. – I felt free almost liberated. I had full freedom and responsibility to create my own product. I wanted to put my love of interiors, trends and scent to do what I really wanted to do. An important thing to mention is that I had plenty of support and encouragement from family and friends.”

Different in the industry- Sustainable to its core

“When researching candles and diffusers I found a gap in the market – a pine wick in the candles which when lit crackles as it burns. In the candles I use a pine wick that is selected from renewable resources and when lit it crackles as it burns. This was to resemble the sound of a log fire. It is important to me to bring together my love of interiors, the outdoors and scent into a sustainable product. I wanted to create and bring to market something different. This is why we use unique heritage colours for every scent, natural waxes, pine wick, and essential oils that stimulate the senses. We use gold finishes on our diffuser caps and use black reeds that do not discolour. We keep our designs, logos and packaging timeless and classy. “

EW Candles Mix EW diffusers 2

Challenges & Opportunities

Like many other businesses, the Covid-19 pandemic was a big challenge for Eimear Wright as they had to navigate their way through the unknown.

“All of our stockists were closed and cash flow was tough during this time, but we did create a new website with The Trading Online Voucher from LEO which was brilliant. Having a very good website during lockdown was so important to us as it created a lot of brand awareness and I found that digital marketing became very important”

Pivot

Like many businesses, during the last number of years following of from the Covid-19 lockdowns, Eimear has also had to pivot her business in some ways.

“Yes, we introduced a smaller sized candle (145g) and this enabled us to get new customers. This to date has been very successful. We also attracted new types of retail outlets – flower shops. They are in the business of selling flowers and fragrances and they found the candles were complimentary to what they were selling.”

“We have worked with a customer to create their own unique fragrance that represented their retail outlet – it was their own signature fragrance with their own brand. It was a wonderful collaboration!”

Stand Out Moments

For Eimear one of the key moments that made her feel like she was on the right path was “when a particular customer came back and was so delighted with the range and the feedback they were getting, they put us in a prominent position in their store and their sales reflected this. “

When customers reorder Eimear says she gets a great sense of ‘all the research and work that went in to getting it right has paid off’

Another Highlight Eimear points to is winning Best Reed Diffuser at the RSVP Beauty awards in 2021 with the Sea Mist fragrance.

LEO Supports received

Eimear and her business have received a number of LEO Supports over the years.

Exhibited as Part of the LEO Village at Showcase 2024
Trading Online Voucher
Online Marketing & Social Media Programme (8 weeks)
Other workshops and courses

Speaking about receiving the Trading Online Voucher during lockdown, Eimear said that “…this was so important as all out customers were in lockdown and the only way we could reach the end user was through our website. It also highlighted our brand and created a lot of awareness about us.”