1984: Burt's Bees originated in Maine as a candle making partnership between Roxanne Quimby and Burt Shavitz in 1984. Shavitz had a honey business which provided the excess beeswax needed for the candles and Quimby's focus on maintaining high quality helped to grow their business from an initial $200 at the Dover-Foxcroft Junior High School craft fair to $20,000 by the end of their first year. Their first headquarters was an abandoned one-room schoolhouse rented out from a friend for $150 a year