From the Cash Register to 100+ Stores: The Deliciously Wickt Story

Victoria Greene was called into her boss’s office at Foodland Smithville and immediately assumed the worst.

Instead, Mike asked her a question she wasn’t expecting.

“Guess what’s on my coffee table at home?”

It was one of Victoria’s candles. His wife had found it at a local shop, brought it home, and now Mike wanted to know why he wasn’t carrying them in his own store.

At the time, Deliciously Wickt was still very much a work in progress. Victoria had started making candles in 2017 as a single mom looking for a way to earn some extra income, never imagining that a few years later one of those candles would find its way onto her boss’s coffee table and help change the direction of the business.

Where it began

Victoria didn’t set out with a grand plan to build a candle company.

Her mother was extremely sensitive to fragrance, so part of Victoria’s early experimentation was simply trying to create something that could be enjoyed in their own home. She learned by doing, adjusting, testing and gradually discovering what she wanted her candles, and eventually her brand, to be.

For a while, Deliciously Wickt remained something she built around the rest of her life. There were small retail opportunities and customers beginning to find her online, but nothing yet suggested where the business was headed.

Then Mike asked if she could create something for Foodland.

The candle his wife had bought came from Victoria’s luxury collection, so Victoria developed a Mason jar version that made more sense for a grocery store while still feeling unmistakably Deliciously Wickt.

Mike ordered 120.

They sold out in two weeks.

That was the moment something shifted.

When one store became many

Word began to spread. Customers travelled from other communities to find the candles, and people who had followed Victoria online through the earlier days of the business showed up to support what she was building.

At the same time, Mike began introducing her to other Foodland owners. One connection led to another, and eventually Deliciously Wickt found its way into Sobeys’ local program, alongside other Ontario-made products.

The growth didn’t happen because Victoria had mapped out a master plan for getting into more than 100 stores. In many ways, it happened the same way the business itself had grown: one opportunity, one relationship and one yes at a time.

Before long, the dynamic had changed. Instead of Victoria trying to convince stores to take a chance on Deliciously Wickt, stores were reaching out to her.

Today, the candles are carried in more than 100 locations across Ontario.

Building something she didn’t quite see coming

There is an odd disconnect for Victoria between making a candle in the workshop and seeing Deliciously Wickt as the business it has become.

She knows the numbers. She sees the orders leave. She knows stores restock and customers find the brand in towns and cities she may never personally visit. But she admits that she doesn’t always fully absorb the scale of it.

“I didn’t realize it was going to turn into a life-changing opportunity,” she says of that early conversation with Mike.

Perhaps that’s part of what has kept the business feeling so personal.

Deliciously Wickt has grown, but Victoria is still drawn to the same things she was in the beginning: creating something people genuinely love, playing with fragrance and design, and hearing from customers who have found the perfect scent for them..

Her advice to someone quietly working on something of their own is simple:

“If you stay quiet and don’t talk about yourself or your skills and passions, you might miss out on huge opportunities. Because, you never know who you might talk to that will be the right person.”

For Victoria, one of those people happened to be her boss at Foodland.

And one candle on a coffee table opened a door she never could have predicted.