It’s time to celebrate an important milestone….. 50 years in business!

Our beginnings started humbly with just a few employees led by Peter French who served as founder, salesperson, and innovation chemist. He created a very simple ethos for running his business…’Tell the Truth and Do the Right Thing’….how could one go wrong there? 

Problem solving for our clients was at the core of our beginnings. Creating tools and educating, while taking candles from a craft into the realm of repeatable science… and if you know anything about candles, that’s not an easy task!

This path took us from designing new takes on traditional fragrances; to making them not only smell great but out-perform in candle systems; to innovating one of the most widely used wax colorants in the industry (FCF Eco-Reach liquid dyes), as well as
collections of color & wax stabilizers that address multiple wax types and fragrance reactions (Unisorb & Liquisorb). 

Fast forward to today, we now serve multiple industries with the same passion for innovation and collaboration… and with the ability to support our clients globally. That small staff has grown into a global network of talented people who create masterpieces and miracles on a daily basis… and yes, we still follow the simple principle of ’telling the truth and doing the right thing’.  

We’ve been told our company is unique.  Not just because we’re still 100% privately held, but because people can feel the sense of fairness and flexibility that exists here - allowing people to have life balance. This freedom allows people to make change on a tangible level, and with clarity, determine the best solution -- without silos and really
seeing the impact of their contributions in real time.

Walk through our offices (some of which were built in the 1700’s and we saved from demolish) and on any given day you will possibly find a dog or two, a visiting child, a color and fragrance chemist debating root causes of why a customer’s evergreen candle turned pink, or colleagues sampling a delicious lemon bar recipe to determine how to capture that essence in a great fragrance.

At least for me, the most gratifying part of my job is seeing someone grow their wings here, from entry level jobs into positions that propel our company forward. It’s not unlike how we grew our business. Not born from acquisitions or mergers, but organically growing in the marketplace and forging strong relationships over time. 

We are very careful about the people we bring into the fold.  We don’t use a traditional checklist for fit. We look for people who are team players; are curious; and who have a path in their story where they took the ’road less traveled’. People who have the openness and curiosity to pivot if needed and see opportunities in less than obvious places. Whether that’s a process improvement, formulation idea, or an inter-departmental lunch-time ’learn to knit’ session to foster bonding and spark creative ideas. Certainly, a sense of humor is a well admired trait! We choose people with the grit to handle adversity when it inevitably happens, and the ability to rally together for solutions.

A big thank you to the FCF family of employees, clients and partners. Thank you for being such an important part of our success story.

Here’s to many additional decades of teamwork, growth and success. “Happy anniversary!”