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- While load shedding is hurting the South African economy, the demand for some products has increased as a result of the rolling blackouts over the last few years.
- Candles and torches are in demand in South Africa.
- This comes as the frequency and intensity of load shedding have increased in recent years.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
Load shedding has plunged South Africans into darkness more regularly over the last few years, making lighting alternatives, including candles and torches, more popular.
South Africa first experienced rolling blackouts in 2007, according to Eskom, and introduced load shedding to reduce pressure on the grid for the first time in 2008.
Load shedding was implemented again in 2014 and 2015 but it has become more frequent and intense from 2019 to date.
Up to May 2023, there were more hours of load shedding than there were in the whole of 2022.
READ NOW | We've had more load shedding so far this year than in the whole of 2022
News24 spoke to many actors in the candle and torch industries to understand how demand for these products has changed in recent years.
All of the companies reported an increase in sales over the period, and mostly attributed this to an increase in stages of load shedding.
Candles
Retailers Woolworths and Shoprite reported a "significant" increase in candle sales from 2019.
The Shoprite media desk said sales of candles at Shoprite and Checkers supermarkets correlated with stages of load shedding.
"Sales of basic (standard) candles generally increase as load shedding levels intensify," it said.
Woolworths said the increase in the demand for candles was most prominent at the beginning of load shedding, before customers turned to alternatives, such as solar and inverters, to keep the lights on.
Mercia Raath-Boshoff, a representative of SA Candle Supply, a company that distributes the raw materials required to produce candles, said that there was a "rapid increase in interest in the entire process since 2019".
Raath-Boshoff also said the price of candles had increased significantly over the period due to weakening of the rand to the dollar, and an increase in shipping and transport costs.
The rand-dollar exchange rate was also flagged as something that drove up costs for Yankee Candle South Africa, by their business owner, Amanda Dreyer.
Dreyer said the company imported Yankee and WoodWick candles from overseas, so the rand-dollar exchange rate was particularly impactful for the company.
The increase in the demand for Yankee candles was predominantly driven by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic when people were working from home were scented candles.
She said that people enjoyed burning scented candles at home.
"The majority of our growth started happening in 2020 to 2021," said Dreyer.
Data from Statista market insights says that the candle industry in South Africa is expected to grow 3.1% between 2023 and 2027.
Eight million Magneto lanterns sold
Magneto LED lanterns have become immensely popular in South Africa.
In excess of eight million of the lanterns have been sold on the South African market according to Brian Price, product manager at Tevo, a South African sales and distribution company.
The lanterns were brought into South Africa around 10 to 12 years ago, before load shedding started to become more intense in the country, Tevo CEO Patrick Bennett told Cape Talk earlier this year.
But the sales of the product increased "exponentially once load shedding took hold", he said.
"I would expect that there is a good chance that there is a Magneto lantern in many of the households around the country," said Bennett.
Price added that the demand for the Magneto LED lantern increased as the stages of load shedding increased.
He said the price of the product increased by R20 since 2015/16 due to a less favourable rand-dollar exchange rate, creeping shipping costs and value-added tax increases.
He said the light should provide many years of service, but spare batteries can bought if required.
