Autumn Newsletter - Avoiding Success

I guess most small business owners sit around (on the rare occasions when they get a chance to sit down!) and dream about when their enterprise will be successful and what they'll do when that happy day comes. We sit around worrying about it and gnawing our fingernails.

This year has been the busiest ever for the Burren Perfumery. Sales are up 40%, and we have more visitors, more products, more production and more staff than ever before. And less time. My apologies for not sending out a summer newsletter but we simply didn't have the time this year.

So why are we worried? Well, mainly we're worried about keeping pace with the growth. This winter we will make 50,000 bars of soap by hand (more than we made altogether last year!) and our increased production has meant taking over the Tearooms while it is closed for the winter to provide more space for drying, cutting and wrapping soaps. However, when the Tearooms re-opens next spring, the soap makers will be looking for a new home and the only place left to go is into our house.

If things keep going this way, our tranquil little corner of the Burren is going to get crowded so we're starting to seriously consider turning over our house to the Perfumery to give it the space it needs. After that, we'll have to start digging tunnels and move our warehouse underground.

On the other hand it is, of course, fantastic that so many people like our place and our products. One of our biggest surprises and successes of 2007 was being asked by a leading hotel in Dublin to supply them with products for their bedrooms. Getting their order together took us eight weeks of flat out work, night and day, but we made it and the products look great. This plant based range is made with organic essential oils and we are very happy with it. It is unusual to find such high quality products in hotel bedrooms however smart and I would certainly find it a treat to discover such great shampoo, conditioner, bath and shower gel, body lotion and handmade soaps laid out for me on a visit somewhere. Especially since they are also made in Ireland.

Despite being rushed off our feet this year we managed to bring out some new products. We now have a range of 100% organic essential oils and a range of candles scented with essential oils and made from soya wax. Naturally fragranced candles are much gentler than their synthetic counterparts which can cause allergic reactions because of the very strong fragrances used. The soya wax used as the base is made from non-GMO, sustainable sources and is better for the environment than conventional paraffin based candles. We also found time to re-package our soaps and extend the range of flavours. More details can be found on our soaps page.

The Tearooms also had an exceptional year. Mary Sheehan, our new chef from New Jersey, turned out amazing cakes, cookies, salads and other organic goodies (lots of recipes in this newsletter!). We think the Tearooms was also helped by another new member of staff, a calico kitten who appeared mysteriously in our car park one summer morning. Cat-5 adopted the Tearooms as home and spent each day of the summer being charming to everyone (and no doubt getting a lot of petting in return).

Dark Sky Update - Many thanks to all those who signed our online petition supporting making the Burren a Dark Sky Preserve. We are hoping to have an event in spring to highlight the problems of light pollution with an astronomy expert on hand to speak on the subject. In the meantime, hats off to the many people lobbying our government and the EU to raise awareness of the issue of light pollution. It seems like the message is getting through as this excerpt from Clare Co. Council's Development Plan reproduced on the Irish Light Pollution Awareness site shows. It seems that for future developments light pollution will be factored into planning. Now if we could just get all the badly designed street lights replaced...

Over the winter we hope to finish our new range of organic floral waters (that we've been working on for over a year now!). That’s assuming we get any breathing space from soap making. Between that and trying to work out how to squeeze in our increasing requirements for manufacturing space, without having to give up our living room and kitchen I think we will have our hands full. We wish you all a very happy holiday season and thank you for your loyalty and continued support.

Best wishes,