8 minute read
HOME + LIVING: INSPIRING YOUR SPACE
INSPIRING YOUR SPACE
Celebrating its 15th birthday, we chat to Enjoy Living’s co-founder Lisa Carrick about the company’s journey so far and what’s in store for the next 15 years.
t all started in 2010 with Enjoy Lighting when a friend from co-founder Lisa Carrick’s Coles Myer buying days reached out to her looking for a distributor in Australia.
“He was the president of the number one flameless candle company in the US and wanted to expand into Australia,” she explains.
“I’d never heard of flameless candles so he sent some samples to me. I put batteries in them, put them on the mantelpiece and that night I walked towards them to blow them out. I stopped in my tracks when I realised what I was doing.
“I looked around to see if my husband had seen me because I was so embarrassed. I was still sceptical and walked backwards down the hallway, keeping my eye on the candles, wondering if I should be turning them off before going to bed, but left them on to see if the inbuilt timer would really work. The very next night I again went to blow them out and that is when I realised that this was truly something special.”
Carrick rang her friend and she told him she had found a distributor… Carrick and her (co-founder) husband David. He needed some convincing because while she had been a buyer for 15 years, she knew nothing about distribution. However, after a week of ringing him each day they both agreed they valued passion over experience and he gave her the green light.
Enjoy Lighting made its debut at the AGHA Melbourne Gift Fair that same year, which was quite the experience, Carrick remembers.
“We had a lot of foot traffic going past our stand and no one was stopping. Eventually I realised that people didn’t know they weren’t real [just like me trying to blow them out at my house]. I stood in the aisle, put a candle upside down on my head and stopped people in their tracks. Theatrics worked. We were nine deep for four days straight, reprinting our order forms twice to keep up with demand. Giftwrap wrote a double page on how we were the success of the trade fair. It was all a little surreal.
“Even with all of my buying experience, I didn’t understand how rare it was to launch a product category, not just a product. And the opportunities and challenges that came with that.”
The last 15 years has seen the candles become more technologically advanced. The original design was fabulous but could only be seen in a dark corner of a store as they were designed for lighting the dark, which presented barriers to entry for retailers who were brightening their stores with LED down lights. Since 2019, new engineering saw an exposed wick and sales have grown exponentially. The original candles were never remote enabled in the beginning and only had one timer option, now they have four.
“The number one question around the world from any consumer is: how long do my batteries last? It’s the thing that keeps us ahead of the pack; our original design required four AA batteries, which would last 200 hours, evolving to two AA batteries, which would last 400 hours, to now the majority of our candles requiring two C batteries, which will last 1,000 hours plus, so you only need to change your batteries twice a year.
“We’re actually the only flameless candle company that states on our packaging the number of hours that you will get out of quality batteries because we’ve done the testing and the research. This means our experience is more about ambience and less about changing batteries. Outside of the handmade hand poured quality you can see and feel, and the range of shapes, sizes, textures and colours we offer, that’s what really separates us from any other flameless candle business,” she ensures.
Testament to the candles’ popularity are the many appearances over the years at fashion shows, worldwide events and with celebrities such as Dannii Minogue, who lived just down the street from Carrick in Melbourne.
“She came to the house to buy flameless candles for all her friends and her sister. We also supplied candles for the opening of Isabel Marant’s flagship store in Melrose Place in Los Angeles, Christian Dior at the Guggenheim, Michael Kors in Hong Kong and we created a candle wall for Tallulah at Fashion Week in Sydney.
“In 2016, our candles lit up the stage for Prince and his Piano & Microphone tour. I remember getting the call just before 5pm on a Friday saying a celebrity needed hundreds of candles batteried up to collect Monday morning. Priding ourselves on delivering excellent customer service, I offered to stay open so the celebrity could select what they wanted. I was told that Prince won’t be doing that and I had to choose for him.
“So many film companies here and around the world search out our candles, as do reality shows like The Bachelor, Farmer Wants a Wife, etc. Our candles go to amazing events. I don’t, but they do,” she laughs.
After all this success as Enjoy Lighting, what spurred Carrick on to rebrand to Enjoy Living?
One word… Covid.
“We took the opportunity to look at our business and how we would do things differently. At that point I really wanted to be able to future proof my business and company by pursuing my first love, which is home interiors and home design.
“So I thought, how do we change our name and not erode the value of the brand recognition, which was Enjoy Lighting? Everyone had known us as Enjoy Lighting for many years. Enjoy Living was the most obvious and easiest transition as both names have the same initials i.e. EL and it was very similar enunciation.”
Enjoy Living allowed Carrick to embrace anything under the Enjoy Living umbrella, giving her scope to branch out into other categories when opportunities presented.
“Under the umbrella of Enjoy Living, if I wanted to diversify into accessories and furniture, I could and I did.”
Indeed, Enjoy Living added Danish brand EKTA Living to its portfolio, which was a perfect complement to its flameless candles and turned out to be the right move for the company.
“I’ve had a love and passion for Danish design for years so adding EKTA Living was a natural progression.”
Looking back on the past 15 years, is there anything Carrick would’ve done differently?
“I probably never would have diversified so quickly with my flameless candle colours and sizes. I would have registered my brand internationally before launching to avoid an Australian competitor at the time registering our brand URLs in the countries we were trading. I would have changed the packaging much earlier and I would have been more selective about the agents I appointed and the alignment of the brands they represented.
“I also would have increased my minimum spend and offered free freight from the beginning rather than having a lower minimum spend and adding freight charges. Now we have free freight Australia and New Zealand wide with minimum spend conditions, but they’re not high.”
After all the success, the challenges and a name change, what can we expect from Enjoy Living in the next 15 years?
“Quality over quantity always. Carefully considering each and every piece of our curation so we only offer the best of any product category in which we choose to trade. Product that inspires your space and makes a tangible difference to the way you feel.
“It’s a tough environment out there at the moment and we’re not shying away from the fact that there are economic challenges for everybody, but we still believe it’s better to buy once and buy well. Planning and preparation are the keys to success, as is diversification and pivoting. And always trust your gut… never do business with people that you wouldn’t have around your dinner table.
“I know it sounds cliché, but if you love what you do, it will never feel like work and that’s always been my mantra. Some days are long, but do I love them? Absolutely.”
