30 May 2014

Profit looms for Ecoya candle brand

6:52 am on 30 May 2014

Trilogy International expects its Ecoya brand of candles will at last make a profit this year.

The company was previously named Ecoya and was floated in early 2010 by Geoff Ross, Grant Baker and Stephen Sinclair - the investors behind vodka company 42 Below.

The company bought the Trilogy brand of natural beauty products in September 2010, and a 27 percent lift in Ecoya sales for the 12 months ended March has helped lift overall company sales 12 percent; Trilogy made a net profit of just over $1 million for the year ended March, up from $34,000 the previous year.

Sales of the Trilogy brand were flat, with sales in Australia falling 10 percent - something the company blames on Australia's difficult retail environment.

Trilogy chief executive Stephen Sinclair said the Ecoya brand was performing well.

It was profitable on its own in the 2013-14 year but into next year it would deliver a positive contribution to the group.

"We had a really good 2013 year, so big growth off 2012, added a lot of new accounts. We've stayed and retained those accounts and believe ... we'll get growth into 2015," Mr Sinclair said.

"So we're pretty happy with the base that we've got in the market."

Trilogy was going well in the British market, which had bounced back post global financial crisis, he said. The company also hoped to expand in the United States.

"The outlook's pretty positive. We believe we can still continue to grow revenue and, at the same time, build on the profit result that we've achieved and over-achieve that again in 2015."