Buyer reference / Specs, files and order sizes
The numbers you need before you ask for a quote.
Order sizes, board thicknesses, artwork requirements and what to send us. Everything on this page is what we actually quote against.
Standard MOQ by product line
All figures are per size and style, not per order. Two sizes of the same box are two separate minimums.
| Product line | Standard MOQ | What sets the floor |
|---|---|---|
| Folding cartons and gift boxes (offset) | 1,000 | Plate, cutting die and make-ready waste |
| Mailer boxes, litho-laminated | 1,000 | Plate and cutting die |
| Mailer boxes, flexo-printed | 500 | Flexo plates cost less |
| Paper bags | 1,000 | Plate plus hand finishing |
| Shipping and master cartons (flexo RSC) | 500 | Slotted, so no cutting die. Our own board line. The most open line we run |
| Rigid and collapsible boxes | 1,000 | Assembled volume. Freight is the constraint, not the press |
| Paper inserts and dividers | With the carton order | Cutting die. 1,000 if ordered on their own |
| Thermoformed trays | Quoted with the box order | Tooling is quoted as a separate one-time line |
| EPE foam inserts | Quoted with the box order | No setup cost |
Smaller runs are quoted case by case. If you need several types of packaging for the same product, our four plants consolidate them into one shipment so the freight is shared.
The minimum exists because of freight, not capacity. Packaging is high volume and low value. On a small LCL booking the minimum chargeable volume and the fixed per-shipment charges land on very few units, and the landed cost stops making sense long before a press does.
A quote needs six things
Missing any of these turns a quote into a guess, and a guess into a revision. Sending all six usually gets a structural proposal and a number back in the first reply.
- Product
- Dimensions in mm and weight in grams. A photo of the product or the pack you use today is faster than a written description.
- Quantity
- Per size and style, plus the expected annual volume. Both matter: one sets the price, the other sets whether tooling is worth it.
- Destination
- Port or city, and the Incoterm you want quoted. We prefer EXW but quote FOB and DDP on request.
- Route
- Container, LCL or parcel network, and whether the cartons are palletised and stacked.
- Channel
- Retail shelf, marketplace fulfilment centre or direct to customer. This drives marking, labelling and presentation.
- Artwork status
- Print-ready, in progress, or not started. If you have nothing yet, say so. We supply the dieline first and you design onto it.
File requirements
Print content is fully customer supplied. These are the file conditions that avoid a re-proof.
- Format. Vector artwork as AI, PDF or EPS. Raster images placed at 300 dpi at final size. Native design files without linked assets are the most common cause of delay.
- Colour. Build in CMYK. Pantone spot colours are quoted separately and are a choice, not a default. Many brand palettes reproduce in CMYK at a lower cost than buyers expect.
- Dieline. Keep our dieline on its own named layer, unlocked, unmodified, and set to overprint so it does not print. Do not scale it.
- Bleed and safety. 3 mm bleed on every edge that trims. Keep text and logos 4 mm inside fold and trim lines. On corrugated, allow more: board thickness and creasing move the panel.
- Type. Outline all fonts or embed them. Small reversed type on kraft or on corrugated does not hold, and we will say so before printing rather than after.
- Barcodes. Supply as vector at the size you want printed, with the quiet zone intact. Do not place a barcode across a crease.
If the file is too large for email, send a link. We will confirm what we received and flag anything that will not hold on the chosen board before we proof.
Flute thickness and what each one is for
Flute selection is a trade-off between crush resistance, print surface and shipped volume. These are the profiles we run.
| Flute | Approx. thickness | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| F | 0.8 mm | Small retail boxes where print quality matters most and the load is light |
| E | 1.5 mm | Litho-laminated mailer boxes and printed retail cartons. The usual choice when the box is seen by the end customer |
| B | 3 mm | General shipping cartons and inserts. Good crush resistance with an acceptable print surface |
| C | 4 mm | Standard export shipping carton where stacking height matters more than print |
| BE | 4.5 mm | Double wall. Print surface of E over the strength of B, for heavy retail-facing packs |
| BC | 7 mm | Double wall for heavy or tall stacks, long sea routes and high humidity |
E and B are produced on our own board line. Other flutes and specialty grades are purchased board, which is normal practice and does not change the specification you receive.
How sampling actually runs
One direction
We ship a sample to you and you confirm by email. Overseas buyers do not ship physical samples back, so approval is done from photographs and measurements against the drawing.
Structure before print
A plain structural sample confirms fit and strength. Printed samples come after the structure is signed off, because a print change on the wrong structure is wasted money.
Repeat orders
Dielines, tooling and approved samples stay on file. Repeat runs skip tooling and sampling, which shortens both cost and lead time.
What we can and cannot issue
We have in-house compression and burst or puncture testing, and we design to ISTA 3A and to carrier parcel profiles.
We do not issue certificates. What you receive is our own test data, which you can use for certification through your own lab if your channel requires it. Any supplier who tells you they certify to ISTA is describing something else.
The corrugated and printing plants both hold the UN production certificate for dangerous goods export packaging, which is what a lithium battery program needs on both the printed box and the shipping carton.
Recycled and certified board
- FSC-certified board available on request on the paper lines. It is a configuration you specify and it carries a cost, not a default on every order.
- Recycled content is standard in most corrugated grades we run. The exact percentage depends on the grade and is stated on the quote.
- Soy-based inks available on request on the offset lines.
- All-paper constructions. Where the product allows it, a die-cut paper insert can replace a plastic tray and keep the whole pack in one material stream.
FAQ
Can you quote before artwork is ready?
Yes. Price is driven by structure, board, quantity and finishing, not by the image on the box. We can quote from dimensions and quantity, then supply the dieline for your designer to work onto.
Why is my freight estimate different from the final invoice?
Cartons ship flat and the shipped volume can only be estimated before production. When we quote a term that includes freight we say the estimate carries that uncertainty, rather than quoting a firm number we cannot hold.
Do you charge for the dieline?
Structural design is done in house as part of quoting a real program. The physical cutting die is a separate one-time tooling line on the quote, and it is kept for your repeat orders.
Can one order mix printed boxes, cartons and foam?
Yes, and that is the reason to send the whole pack rather than one part of it. Parts made in different plants are consolidated into a single booking so the freight is shared instead of paid separately.
Have the six things? Send them.
Product, quantity, destination, route, channel and artwork status. That is a quote rather than a conversation about what a quote would need.