Our history
The brigth history behind Diana Candles
Back in 1969 Connie and Geert Olesen wished for a bright future - and thanks to the couples enthusiasm and daring characters their wish became a reality. Diana Candles was born and today it is one of Northern Europe’s largest candle manufacturers, with no less than 3 factories and close to 300 employees .
Actually Geert Olesen was educated baker, and Connie Olesen was a shop assistant, but it was not bread Geert drove around selling - he sold gift items and napkins. Later he also began selling candles, and within a short time Mr. Olesen had customers demanding candles into a degree that led to the Olesen families first small production of candles. Diana Candles first production was made at home in the basement in Sparkaer in Denmark where Mr. and Mrs. Olesen lived.
But the home in Sparkaer was not only filled with a lot of candles, the Olesens also had a bunch of little boys running around, so Mr. Olesen was happy to hear that Hald’s Dairy in 1970 was for sale, and the old dairy now became the couple’s first real candle factory.
Soon more people was hired, and while Mr. Olesen mostly took care of purchases and sales, Mrs. Olesen took care of accounting and finance. Diana Candles was here to stay , and scattered light and cosiness across the country.
The company grew fast, despite it through the ’70s and ’80s , was destroyed by fire no less than 3 times - the latest fire was back in 1988. Today the companies head office is still at the same adress, but the company has been extended a few times, and today the company in Hald is more than 15000 square meters, and where there once was an old dairy, there now is a beautiful inspiring showroom. Besides the factory in Hald, there is also a factory in Hoejslev in Denmark, as well as a factory in Ventspils in Latvia.
Mr. and Mrs. Olesen has retired now, and Diana Candles is now run by the couples four "boys", who all inherited their parents’ enthusiasm. But the company is still visited several times during the week by Mr. Olesen, who still has a lot of bright ideas to offer the company.
The son Lars Olesen is today living in Latvia, and together with his latvian wife he takes care of the latvian department with more than 200 employees. The son Jesper Olesen is in charge of the production in Hoejslev together with his wife, and Thomas and Joergen takes care of the head department in Hald, where Joergens wife also is working as a coordinator for the company’s many tasks.
