Recently our AS and A2 Business students had the opportunity to meet with a local entrepreneur Olivia Burns (@oliviashaven) as part of their A level studies.
Olivia Burns is the founder of Olivia’s Haven a local business in Ballymoney producing premium hand-poured soy candles.
Olivia took a leap of faith and launched Olivia’s Haven just as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold and the world locked down. She worked through the pandemic from her home studio to build the business one candle at a time!
Through strong word of mouth and local support, Olivia’s Haven has captured the hearts (and noses!) of so many people, amassing an online following of more than 20,000 within 18 months of launching. Alongside this, the luxury brand has also made an impression on some of the largest media outlets, including Forbes, Stylist, Good Housekeeping, The Irish Times and more.
Since then, Olivia’s Haven has expanded rapidly and is now based at a much larger 5,000 sq ft workshop on the North Coast with a wonderful team of eight staff members (and growing) working across product development and design, production and fulfilment, alongside marketing and business development departments.
The group found the visit to this local business an excellent opportunity to help with their A Level Coursework research and Olivia was kind enough not only to answer all of the pupils’ questions but to also show them how her candles are manufactured and marketed.
Mrs McTaggart, our Business Studies teacher, described the visit as a, “Really fantastic experience which will help give the pupils so many valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing local companies. I would really like to thank Olivia for the time she took to share her success story with our pupils and we wish her continued success in the future”.
