let there be light

2000 1333 In Good Company | Northern Rivers
northern light ballina logo

Northern Light

Alstonville

www.northernlight.com.au

Visit Ballina Northern Rivers-01
let there be light

“I eat a pot of honey every day and I’ve been stung more than 70,000 times,” says Jeffrey Gibbs, founder of Northern Light, an organic beeswax candle company based on the Alstonville plateau. “I am a beekeeper in love.”

If anyone knows bees, it’s Jeffrey. He started working as a beekeeper 46 years ago and became the north coast’s largest keeper of bees. After years of drought and with millions of bees on the line, Jeffrey turned his entrepreneurial spirit in a new direction.

“Aromatherapy was becoming a big thing in Australia,” says Jeffrey. “I realised, though, aromatherapists were using petroleum candles to disperse their scents. Petroleum is a carcinogenic and a mutagen. But organic beeswax? That’s pure gold.”

Jeffrey set up shop as an organic beeswax candle company, using only the highest-grade beeswax in Australia. Within a year Northern Light supplied candles Australia wide. Early advocates include Nicole Kidman, Rae’s on Wategos, Body Shop, Aveda and Jurlique. Jeffrey’s candles also brought light to the most recent Papal tour of Australia.

More than half the sales are now international, and at least 60% is online. Australia’s largest supplier of cosmetic grade beeswax, Northern Light really is the doorway from the farm gate to the international market.

While reach is wide, the centre of Northern Light’s business is the self-invented tea light machine, which runs on compressed air and macadamia waste.

“That machine has been the biggest challenge but is also our greatest strength,” says Jeffrey. “It took nine years, but eventually I brought it to life. It runs like silk, and is the only machine of its kind in the world.”

Alstonville plateau is a handy location for business. As well as being on a well-serviced freight line, Northern Light collaborates with local macadamia producers. Jeffrey offers honey, and in return, they offer macadamia shells, which Jeffrey uses to create 80% of his energy.

Jeffrey himself, though, is on the road much of the year. He’s driving from South Australia to Queensland, and out west, to visit beekeepers and their bees. The secret of his business is his relationships with the keepers.

For Jeffrey, this is what it’s all about.

Northern Light has tripled the price of beeswax in the last seven years, and this goes straight into the beekeepers’ pockets.

northern_lights _ballina_northern_rivers_001
northern_lights _ballina_northern_rivers_002

Share this story

Read more stories
cumulus vfx byron 002

effective creatives have all the fun

 1000 750 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Cumulus VFX
They’ve walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Hoges. Gone down the garden path with Peter Rabbit. Flown Katie Holmes over…

Farmers in the fields

 2048 1366 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Norco Primex
Bruce Wright has made his career by bringing together and supporting many of the region’s farmers and primary producers.

crowd pleasing innovation creates a buzz

 1210 864 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

BeeInventive
It’s difficult to know where to start with the remarkable story of BeeInventive. Perhaps in the humble shed in Byron Shire bushland…

bennett construction lismore 003

back to the future with new inspiration

 1920 781 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Bennett Construction
It would be fair to say that Bennett Construction and Ballina High School have come full circle with each other. It sounds like a back to the future…

The dream team

 2560 1707 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Joel Jensen Constructions
Despite the pressures of running an award-winning construction company, there’s one thing Joel Jensen strives to do every day.

Creativity takes flight

 2560 2560 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Honey Hunt Style
Jules Hunt moved to Byron Bay with her family 15 years ago because she wanted to raise her children with a strong sense of community. It was by chance that this move led to the flourishing of her artistic career – and more recently to her turn as a successful business woman.

cooperative success, sweet for 150 years

 1000 627 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Sunshine Sugar
The Northern Rivers is home to generations of cane farming families who have not only built the sugar industry, but also saved the local…

Adapting is second nature for first in class

 2560 1709 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Lazuli and Co.
The hairdresser and business owner, after all, has had a lot to adapt to – her salon is in central Lismore and was destroyed by the February 2022 floods, which also completely engulfed her nearby home. Before that were the ravages wrought by the pandemic.

edmonds conveyancing ballina 001

home is where the heart is

 1920 847 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Edmonds Conveyancing
The legal aspects of buying and selling a property are not normally associated with having a laugh and even singing, but the Edmonds Conveyancing…

Nurtured by nature

 2560 1723 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Greenx7
For the past 10 years GreenX7 has been running workshops and retreats internationally and in the Tweed for clients as diverse as McDonald’s, Deloitte, Six Senses, and the Australian Defence Force, to inspire both individuals and teams to tap into the healing power of nature.

Alternative. Accessible. Affordable.

 2560 2553 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Nimbin Apothecary
Nimbin Apothecary is a herbal medicine dispensary providing acute over-the-counter consulting for herbal medicine prescriptions.

Spirit of Byron in a bottle

 2560 1707 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Cawarra Cosmetics
Cawarra Cosmetics has been a leading manufacturer of Australian skincare, personal care and cleaning products in the region for more than 40 years.

Passion, patience and protein

 2400 1350 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Hemp Foods Australia
When Hemp Foods Australia founder, Paul Benhaim, discovered hemp as a food choice in the early 90s during his global travels, he had his own preconceived ideas.

Dance call for Kyogle

 1473 828 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Ascent Dance
Starting a dance school just five weeks before the onset of a pandemic might have dampened the spirits of some new business owners, but Haylee Holliday took it as a sign that Ascent Dance Studio had to succeed.

spell_designs_byron_bay001

spellbinding growth for a home grown icon

 1000 667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Spell Designs
The scent, texture and aura of Byron Bay is famous, and well-loved. If that Byron Bay feeling was a fashion brand, it would surely be Spell & The Gypsy Collective….

In Ventura we trust

 2500 1667 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Ventura Brewing
Ventura is a symbol of luck, chance and good fortune – and while Ventura Brewing’s two founders have had a good dose of all three – it’s mostly been a lot of hard work and focus to launch this craft kombucha brewery amid a global pandemic.

Spoiled stays for special pets

 2560 1600 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Skye Park Pet Resort
In 2014, a long-held aspiration finally came to fruition for Helen and Ian MacGregor when they purchased an existing pet boarding facility in bucolic Clarenza, with the dream of making it their own.

Heart and Soul of a region

 1500 2250 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Norco Co-operative
Norco has an impressive origin story.

horizon motorhomes ballina 002

when opportunity knocks…

 1600 1067 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Horizon Motorhomes
When a campervan arrived on Clayton Kearney’s used car yard in 1995, and sold in seconds flat, he realised there was a gap in the market…

nimbin valley dairy 003

love, peace and artisan cheese

 666 500 In Good Company | Northern Rivers

Nimbin Valley Dairy
Not every goat in Australia has its own nutritionist and its own vet. But the goats at Nimbin Valley Dairy definitely do. Bill, the nutritionist…

Start Typing

X