Introduced for the first time at the AGHA Melbourne Gift Fair earlier this month, the inaugural award for entrepreneur of the year was given to Queen B founder, Cate Burton.
Queen B was the first company in Australia to make beeswax food wraps by hand and 20 years later still follows the same principles with its candles.
“This award means an enormous amount to me,” she enthuses. “It appears the judging panel also wanted to believe that there is something to look forward to in the future and to give people hope and that there is more to retail than sourcing cheap product in a developing country and whacking a huge margin on it.
“What I wrote in my submission for this award was a stream of consciousness, the antithesis of the traditional entrepreneur. I am very passionate about where the world is going wrong with people needing 300 to 400 per cent margin because they are trying to pay Westfield rent and where the planet and staff come second or third.
“Our values are turned on its head. We are passionate about Australian bees and beekeepers and we would never compromise on that. We would never add soy or paraffin to our candles as it makes them toxic to burn.”
Underlying Queen B’s success to date is the use of the purest beeswax in the world—Australian beeswax, sourced from Australian bees and beekeepers all over regional Australia.
“For 22 years it hasn’t been hard for me to get up as I know I make a difference to our customers’ lives and I know I make a difference to our beekeepers. I always make a rule that I will never buy from a beekeeper who I haven’t met personally. We use about 10 tonnes of wax per year. I only use second, third and fourth generation beekeepers who are trained in the traditional methods of beekeeping,” she adds.
“I have been telling retailers that we are only going to survive this downturn if they are going to stock products that are not easily hacked or copied at half the price and this means buying products that have values and none of that stuff comes particularly cheaply and yet it is what keeps us in business. Customers will always value handmade product that has provenance and has a story and if we all just told stories in our retail stores, we are going to survive.”
Exhibiting at the AGHA Melbourne Gift Fair, Burton made sure she took the time to talk to buyers to tell Queen B’s story and what makes her and the team so passionate about the products.
“The buyers that are interested in pure beeswax candles are buyers with heart—mainly independents while we do have some majors as well. If you are going to have a retail store, then you owe it to yourself and to your customers to show up and go and see what is hidden.
“People tell me that the gift fairs are becoming irrelevant and I say that’s not true. You need to touch, feel, see the quality and hear the story behind the product, because the best retailers are storytellers. Customers love a story and then they emotionally buy into the product.
“We have met beautiful retailers and by spending 20 minutes with them at the gift fair they understood our story, our beekeepers and what we are passionate about. Not only are they going to be a retailer for years to come, but they are going to sell better because they know the stories to tell and customers buy into that,” she concludes.
