Why? Perhaps the most important question. I’ll start with addresing the ‘why’ of our small business deciding to get out of the business of manufacturing and selling earcandles. Then I’ll turn my attention to the larger ‘why’ of the FDA stance against earcandles. This could be a long post. Or not.
On 17 Feb 2010 the FDA issued WARNING LETTERS to a list of all known earcandle manufacturers in the United States.
It may come as a surprise to many of you that there are so many of us. But believe me when I tell you the FDA merely skimmed the top of the bucket. The earcandle market is highly fragmented. Sure there are a few that have expanded, scaled their business, and are making a strong go of it. There are even foreign companies based in Europe and Asia that sell into the US market. Fragmented, dispersed, agile, and hard to control if you are of the mindset that favors central planning.
My WARNING LETTER arrived via FedEx on 19 Feb 2010. I did a quick analysis of my options and decided to pull the plug on what had been a 15 year journey. Hard to do but I had been leaning in that direction anyway for reasons that have nothing to do with anything the FDA may have to say on the matter. I archived and moved the “old site” into an undisclosed directory on my server and decided to repurpose my domain name earcandle.com to serve as a voice.
FDA WARNING LETTER p1
FDA WARNING LETTER p2
to be continued…
–gary
I am sorry to hear you are getting out of the business. Ear Candles have been a comfort in many homes for so many centories!