House of Commons

The Recycled Candle Company is a brilliant client for many reasons. Importantly, Richard and Sargon trust me to get on with what I’m good at, while I let them get on with what they’re good at – making luxury candles from recycled wax!

One recent upshot of this was entering them for the Best Small Shops 2019 Competition. I knew of this because Sarah from Nourish mentioned it to me, she was a finalist in 2018. It seemed perfect for TRCC so I started the process of adding them to the Indie Retail website and running through the awards questions with Richard and Sargon.

Part of the competition was a public vote, with the top ten competitors highlighted each week, so we could see how they were performing. TRCC has a very engaged social media following, so I posted a request for votes, and asked again, and again (always politely). TRCC are clearly doing something right, as they featured in the top ten fairly consistently.

It wasn’t just down to the vote, though. The judges looked at the submission questions for community engagement, use of technology and plans for the next five years.

We were all thrilled in October when TRCC was announced as one of the Best 25 Small Shops in Britain, and were invited to a reception at the House of Commons on November 5th. I pointed out the auspiciousness of the date and where we were going… but I was, naturally, delighted to be invited along.

Visiting the House of Commons was a real treat, particularly as I’d never been there. Such an awesome atmosphere. The reception was at the Terrace Pavilion, which is right above the River Thames with a first-rate view of the London Eye.

Icing on the cake? The Recycled Candle Company were announced as one of just two runners up in the competition, which had attracted over 600 entries, we were told. The winner was Papadeli, a Bristol-based deli, and the other runner-up was Book-ish, an independent bookshop in Crickhowell, Powys.

A lovely day, a great result and a very happy client!



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