Dear Friend,

If you've been following Needfire since the beginning of 2022, you may be familiar with the year we've had.

In April we experienced an entire shutdown of the street we were formally located, forcing us to move. The businesses who remained have almost entirely closed their doors. Since then, we have seen the slowest in person retail sales we've ever experienced since reopening following the lockdowns.

We have always survived, and in many ways thrived, due to our ability to pivot and identify the best path forward. So, we're finding ourselves in that spot again. Our current business model relies heavily on both consistent retail and wholesale, and too long without one becomes far too unsustainable. While our wholesale has remained consistant, it has put us in a state of unending stress and scrambling.

Our Halloween vendor markets were a big bright spot for us. We are really excited to embark on a series of winter markets and create a space for local vendors to congregate and sell their wares.

Needfire isn't closing, but we are changing. We cannot sustainably offer candles without burning out our small staff with the current model, and we have seen how this has begun to impact our customers.

We will cease candle product at the end of December and close our sales portal the Monday after Thanksgiving. We have found a number of other, far more sustainable projects to transition our energy to.

Timothy and I have deeply appreciated the support of our community, and we are not going anywhere as a company. However, you will see some big changes. If you wish to purchase candles from us between late November and December 24th, be sure to come by one of our local markets.

All open orders will be fulfilled beween now and mid-December. We have had significant delays with our white wax, so those will be the last to get fulfilled. By closing orders after Thanksgiving, we can ensure that we are able to get everyone any outstanding orders in a reasonable time.

If you are still waiting on an open order, or if you are waiting on communication, we appreciate your patience. Our staff is a skeleton crew at the moment - enough to sustainably run our new projects, but this particular transitional time is an intense one!

As always, we are incredibly grateful for the support and kindness of our community. We know this is a big change, and we assure you there are many exciting and interesting things to come from the Needfire team - some under the same name, and other's under new projects. In the meantime, we recommend if you want any candles from the shop that you order them before we close our sales channel.

All the best,

Minta Karlsson