Aromathy / Manufacturing OS
Making the product was only the beginning.
What started as a scented-products business during lockdown became the inspiration for something much bigger.
A manufacturing operating system built around the realities of running a scented brand, from ingredients and production to stock, compliance, pricing and trade.
01 / Where it started
Before it was software, it was a business.
Aromathy started during the Covid lockdowns as a scented-products business making soft, scoopable wax melts.
What began as an idea for a different kind of wax melt quickly became a real business, with products to make, package, sell and organise.
Running it meant learning everything that happened behind the product: ingredients, formulations, production, stock, suppliers, compliance, orders and eventually the organisational reality of pulling it all together when it was time for the accounts.
The longer I ran the business,
the more I started noticing the business
behind the product.
Aromathy / 2021 Original Scoop & Spread products, packed and ready to go.
Product insert / 2021 “Scoop the required amount. Spread into your wax warmer.”
02 / Behind the product
Making it was only half the job.
A scented product might look simple on the shelf, but behind it sits a web of ingredients, suppliers, formulations, production, stock, compliance, packaging, costs and sales.
Each part depends on the others, and small changes can have a big impact.
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Ingredients & suppliers
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Formulations & product data
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Production & batch tracking
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Stock & inventory
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Compliance & documentation
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Costs & pricing
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Sales & accounting
03 / Getting it on the shelf
Retailers needed more than a product.
As the business grew, retailers wanted more than great products: they needed the right information too.
Brochures, product information, trade pricing, RRP and an easy way to place orders all became part of getting the product onto the shelf.
04 / What it became
The system I wished I’d had.
All of those separate problems eventually pointed to the same thing: the information was connected, but the tools weren’t.
Aromathy brings it together in one manufacturing operating system, from products and procurement to production, stock, compliance, costs and trade.
That’s the story.
See what else I’ve been working on.
Websites, ecommerce, software and systems: different projects, same curiosity about how things could work better.