Yorkshire entrepreneur launches safer candle product to UK market

Yorkshire entrepreneur Lewis Bowen, who is also foudner of Geco Industries, is launching brand new product designed to create a cleaner and safer alternative to traditional candles.

Lewis and his Sheffield-based team have already secured the product’s inaugural product listing in Makro in September 2015, ahead of EU plans to ban the use of paraffin liquid in candles and lamp oils in 2016.

The LightMe bio-oil candle is the latest in a range of new bio-oil products created to make alternative energy solutions affordable, accessible and sustainable.

Made from a patented mix of bio-oils derived and refined from a sustainable source of Palm Kernel oil, LightMe candles are the safest and cleanest real flame candles in the world, and are the only one of their kind.

Refined in Europe, LightMe’s patented bio-oil is currently selling 250,000 units a month in Denmark, but the new EU ban will create demand from a variety of industries, including hotels and restaurants, which will require alternative products to the oil candles traditionally used.

Commenting on the ethical importance of the project, beyond the EU legislation, Bowen said: “There are two million deaths a year from indoor air pollution caused by harmful fuels such as paraffin, wood and kerosene, so we donates 5% of our profits to support global projects.

“As well as the oil safety elements, the candles are self-extinguishing when knocked over, and do not create soot, so at a local level they’re a safer alternative to traditional candles in and out of the home environment.”