Fresh Bet Bits, Claire Burke Original Memories, Home Fragrance Product Updates and Commentary

I hope I won’t jinx things by letting you know that Tania, our Claire Burke Rep, now tells me they have finally received our Original Warmer Refills at the new Canadian Warehouse today. If we had not had so many broken promises about these, I would be jumping up and down!

Tania tells me they have received 1800 refills and these are to be divided amongst their top accounts. Fresh Bet has been promised 200 of these to be shipped this week - their first shipment of these going out the door.

She also tells me that Mark assures them they have 8000 more Original Warmer Refills due in next week via air from Portugal. At that point, they will then be able to fulfill all of our back orders. It is still too soon to tell exactly how long transit time will be between their Canadian warehouse and South Carolina.

Tomorrow we expect to receive our first shipment from Claire Burke since before Christmas. We were told this left on Jan 18th, so this took 6 business days to arrive. Tania says there were Customs harmonization codes to be resolved, so hopefully these shipments won’t take so long in the future.

Please know we will be shipping our oldest back orders first just as soon as the Original Warmer Refills arrive the first week of February. Again, thanks to everyone for their incredible patience and we will be including a free gift.

The Claire Burke inventory situation seems to be slowly improving. Currently we are awaiting our first shipment from their new Canadian warehouse which seems to be taking forever to arrive!

These items are already enroute to us:
Apple Jack Warmer Refills, Reed Diffusers, Hand Soap, Tin Candles & Potpourri
Vitabath Gelee Gallons - all scents
Festive Simmer Oil Samplers
Original Tin Candles, Vapourri, Parfum, Luxury Candles, Votives
Sea Simmer Oil, Warmer Refills

We expect the above items to arrive by the end of this week. I asked about the status of a few other items which are out of stock:

Original Warmer Refills - expected to arrive at the Factory on Feb 1, 2008.
Apple Jack & Peel Simmering Oil - not expected to arrive until May 20, 2008.
Original Lampourri Oil - due at the warehouse on Feb 20, 2008.
Original Reed Diffusers - due to us within 2 weeks.
Christmas Memories & Oh Christmas Tree Warmer Refills - sometime in May or June 2008.

Please know that we are doing our best to keep you informed. We appreciate your patience!

Those of you who are long time Claire Burke afficionados will remember that we usually have the Original and Apple Jack Vapourri 2-packs in early January every year. Last Fall I started asking Claire Burke if these would return. I was delighted to hear they would offer these again, but a bit disappointed that it would not be until February.

I asked Mark about these last month and he explained the reason for the delay. These are produced in Massachusetts and the Factory has been slammed with orders. However, they are on order and expected to arrive by mid February.

We are now showing these on our website at zero cost. This is because we do not want your card to be charged prematurely until these are ready to ship. So, if you would like to place a pre-order, please CALL us (1-800-322-0525) and provide order information. This way we can better control when your card is charged just before we ship.

If you add them to a shopping cart order, we will email you requesting you contact us with payment information. We will not be taking shopping cart orders for these 2-packs until they are actually in-stock.

These are produced in limited supply and this offer only comes around once a year. You can get 2 Vapourri for $15.00 - a savings of $5.00. So, hurry and place your pre-order today!

Well, it’s been a long haul with Claire Burke since last July when their parent company went belly up. This is such a wonderful old brand that many of us hate to hear about these kind of problems. Last week I attended the Gift Show in Atlanta and was pleased to meet the new management: Richard is the new owner and Chuck is his 2nd man in charge. Naturally it was a pleasure to see Mark again who is now over their procurement.

Richard is a delightful man who has a long background in the fragrance industry. Essentially he has come out of retirement and bought Claire Burke/Vitabath with cash assets. He made a point of telling me this so I would know the future financial health of the company is secure. Richard told me there are 2 top priorities at this point:

1) Insure that inventory is ALWAYS available
2) Immediately start improving upon all of their candles

Naturally I was delighted to hear this and give them more suggestions for products for 2008. Here are a few recaps from our conversation:

* They tell me they will be making Original Refresher Oils available again in a non-spray format with a plastic dropper insert style top to meter the droplets out of the bottle.
* Original & Apple Jack Vapourri 2-packs ($15.00 for 2 sprays) will be available in February.
* Original Warmer Refills are promised to ship to us by January 31st, 2008.
* Apple Jack Warmer Refills are already enroute to Fresh Bet from their new Canadian warehouse. We expect these to arrive by January 25th, 2008.

There wasn’t much new to see in the Claire Burke line for Spring. Naturally they have been so busy trying to get their “sea legs” under them, they haven’t had much time for new product development. This is totally understandable and we will all try to be patient in this regard. The only new item I saw was a White Lavender Reed Diffuser, which we will be adding soon.

They are starting to focus on their Fall/Christmas lines for 2008 and have assured me that next Winter we WILL have simmer oils and many more products available in Christmas Memories and Oh Christmas Tree. They will be launching Pomegranate Plum for September 2008.

The much-awaited warmer refills in Oh Christmas Tree and Christmas Memories will be available in June 2008. We are pleased to take your pre-orders by PHONE for these items to avoid premature charges to your credit card by ordering on-line.

* We also expect Vitabath Gelee gallons to arrive this week in all 4 scents!
* I forgot to ask about the Apple Jack Simmer Oil. This is expected sometime in February. It had to be reformulated for a new Factory because the previous Canadian manufacturer decided to retire.

Richard has a lovely woman named Nikki who has apparently worked for him many years. Nikki will now be in charge of reformulating all Claire Burke candles to make them more fragrant and improve the wick quality.

All in all, it was a very productive meeting and I was able to share many of my concerns with all 3 of these gentlemen who assured me that Fresh Bet is FIRST in line for backordered product shipments. I sensed that many gift retailers have opted to drop the Claire Burke product line as a result of availability issues; please know that Fresh Bet will always offer Claire Burke because this line is so near and dear to my heart!

Fragrant Regards,
Bet aka “Freshbet”

I am sad to report that the Claire Burke Original and Apple Jack Warmer Refills have experienced another delay. On December 3rd I spoke with Mark who told me he expected 5000 to arrive at their warehouse within one week. Today I checked with them to find out if our shipments had left the warehouse.

Mark tells me the warmer refills have arrived from Portugal but are now being held by Canadian Customs for inspection. This apparently can take as long as 2 weeks because this is the first time this supplier has imported into Canada. What rotten timing! Now that Claire Burke has shut down their US warehouse to be moved from Upstate NY to Canada, there is no way we can have these to our customers by Christmas.

The new Canadian warehouse will resume shipments on January 2nd. By then, the warmer refills should be in stock. This means we probably will not get these prior to January 7th. UGGHHH…

If we can all muddle along through the last of these shortages in January, hopefully things will improve with Claire Burke as we move into February. Again, our sincere apologies for the delay.

We were all so pleased last Spring when Claire Burke brought back Wisteria. This was a highly requested fragrance from 10 yrs ago that was loved by those who enjoy a spring floral scent.

I have seen this happen before when they bring a fragrance back; often folks just don’t buy it up like they say they will and before you know it, they have dropped the fragrance again. This is what has happened with Wisteria which has now been officially discontinued again.

Sheer Vanilla has been around for 2-3 years and because it wasn’t a vigorous seller, it has also been discontinued.

Mocha Silk is also officially retired now. When I spoke with Mark this week, I inquired about the new Pomegranate Plum that was supposed to be available this Fall. He tells me it will indeed be released for Fall of 2008.

I have attempted to stock up on some of these items. However, the Factory rarely gives us much notice and often these items are already depleted by the time they tell us they are dropping them. So, if you love any of these scents, stock up now because soon they will all be gone!

Well, it’s been a real roller coaster ride for the past few months with Claire Burke and Vitabath availability. The Factory has been through a tough 4 months this year; however, things ARE getting better!

This week I called Mark to get the official lowdown on shortages and here is what he tells me:

* Vitabath Gelee gallons are arriving today at the warehouse. We should receive our orders by December 14th.
* Claire Burke Original and Apple Jack Warmer Refills are due this week. We expect to receive our stock by December 17th.
* Original Lampourri Oil will not be available until late January 2008 at best. Apparently there was a crop problem with Patchouli that has caused this delay.
* Apple Jack Simmer Oil will not be available until sometime in January.

In case you missed a previous blog, Claire Burke has discontinued production of all Refresher Oil Sprays. For 2008, standard refresher oil (non-spray format) will now be included only in bagged potpourri. The Factory is already out of Original refresher oil sprays, as are we at Freshbet.

The factory warehouse will be relocating during the last half of December. This means after December 18th, we will not be receiving any shipments until the first week of January. We are looking forward to receiving plug-in warmer refills in Christmas Memories and Oh Christmas Tree scents in early January.

Original and Apple Jack Vapourri 2-pack specials WILL once again be offered this year. Typically these are available in early January; however, this year they should arrive by late January. This is your once a year chance to stock up on Original Vapourri because you get 2 cans for $15.00 - a savings of $5.00. Freshbet has already placed a large order for these so you can be assured we will have them FIRST!

I am also working with Mark regarding Original refresher oils, so stay tuned and cross your fingers!

As always, if you have questions, please be sure to email Bet. I want to once again thank everyone for their incredible patience and graciousness as we all muddle along through these shortages. Personally, I am just grateful that someone bought this fine old company and will be keeping it alive for all of us to enjoy for years to come!

Please know we will be shipping all of your backorders just as soon as our stock arrives. We will be including a FREE sachet for your patience.

The Fresh Bet ladies wish everyone a very wonderful Christmas this year with health, prosperity and safety for all!

We have just been notified that the Claire Burke Factory has decided to discontinue all Refresher Oil Sprays. Apparently they are already sold out on Original and there will be no more. They still have Applejack, Wisteria, Citrus Blush, Sheer Vanilla and The Sea so we will attempt to stock up on these before they are entirely depleted.

Several weeks ago they informed us they have discontinued production of the large deluxe size bag of Potpourri which was 3.0 dry quarts. Now with this change to the refresher oils, it would seem they will be coming out with all Potpourri including one refresher oil. In other words, we can no longer offer Refresher Oil as a separate item.

Throughout the next few months we will probably see a new size potpourri being offered with the refresher oil to replace the existing 1.6 quart small bag and 3 qt large bag. I will continue to ask them to consider bringing back an individual refresher oil that is not in spray format.

Sadly with today’s high fuel prices UPS is raising our costs by 5% for 2008 for all ground shipments. These new rates will go into effect on December 31, 2007 for calendar year 2008. Below is an excerpt from their notification:
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As 2008 approaches, all of us at UPS would like to express our appreciation for your continued business. To help you plan for the coming year, we want you to know about new UPS rates and services that will take effect December 31, 2007.

UPS published small package Daily Rates will change as follows*: UPS Ground and UPS Standard to Canada services will increase 4.9%. Air and International express services will increase a net 4.9% through a combination of a 6.9% increase in rates and a 2% reduction in the air and international fuel surcharge.

Changes will also be made to accessorial charges. Delivery Area Surcharges and Residential Surcharges will increase by $0.10. The Additional Handling charge will increase by $0.50 and the charge for Address Corrections for UPS Ground packages will increase by $1.00. The charge for Declared Value will increase by $0.05 per $100 of Declared Value, with a minimum charge of $1.80, and you, as the shipper, will have the option to bill Declared Value charges for Freight Collect shipments to your account. To see the complete list of accessorial changes, please visit ups.com/rates.
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Please know that I absolutely HATE having to raise our shipping costs to our customers. But, we are a small business and we try to keep our rates evenly matched to our actual costs. Therefore, we will most like have to increase our shipping costs as well.

Fresh Bet will continue to shop between the US Postal Service, UPS & FedEx to try to find the best shipping rate for our customers. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this area.

We had a Rebate Program in 2006 that was so well received, I thought we should repeat it again for 2008! The basics are the same. The result is essentially a 10% rebate for our loyal customers who choose to make Fresh Bet their home fragrance retailer of choice.

Here’s how it works:

* You will receive a postcard with your next shipment that explains the program on the front of the card.
* On the back of the card you simply record each purchase by Sale # and dollar amount.
* When you reach the desired level, simply mail it to us and we will mail or email you a rebate coupon. Simple enough!
* The program will end in the 4th quarter of 2008, so be sure to mail your postcards back to us by November 2008.

Now you can accumulate your purchases with Fresh Bet Home Fragrances over the next 6-12 months and use your Rebate Coupon towards FREE Stuff!

Here are the rebate levels:

* $200.00 - $249.99 - $20.00 off Coupon
* $250.00 - $349.99 - $25.00 off Coupon
* $350.00 - $449.99 - $35.00 off Coupon
* $450.00 - $549.99 - $45.00 off Coupon
* $550.00 or more - $55.00 off Coupon

So keep an eye out for the lavender Rebate Postcard in your next order! As always, thanks for shopping with Freshbet.com.

Bet