Frequently Asked Questions

Send us your brief and you will have a quote back within 24 hours. The more of this you can give us, the more accurate the price will be:

• what goes inside the bag or box, and roughly how heavy it is
• size, or a sample of your current packaging we can measure
• your artwork, or just your logo if the design is not finished
• quantity per design, and how many designs you need
• delivery city and country, and the date you need stock on the shelf

If you do not have all of it yet, send what you have. We will tell you what is still missing — send your brief here.

Six things move the price more than anything else: the paper and board you choose, the finished size, how many colours are printed, the finishing (foil, embossing, laminate), the handle or closure, and the quantity per design.

Quantity has the largest effect, because the printing setup is a fixed cost that gets spread across the run. We break all of this out as separate lines in the quote, so you can see what each choice costs before you commit.

Talk to us before you assume it will not work. In most cases we can still help, usually one of two ways:

• Combine designs. Several sizes or colourways printed in one production window share the setup and scheduling, so the total often clears the minimum even when no single design does.
• Order once, deliver in stages. You place one production order and we hold the stock, releasing it to your warehouse as you need it. This keeps your cash and your storage under control.

Tell us your annual volume rather than your first order, and we will work back from there.

Yes, and it is worth understanding why, because it changes how you should plan. The printing setup for each design is a fixed cost. At 5,000 units it is carried by 5,000 bags; at 20,000 it is carried by 20,000. The paper cost per bag barely moves, but the setup share falls sharply.

This is why one larger run usually beats three small ones, and why we ask about your yearly volume rather than only the order in front of us. We never lower a price by quietly changing the approved materials. You can see how the tiers are structured on our wholesale paper bags page.

Vector files work best — AI, EPS or a print-ready PDF, with fonts converted to outlines and colours set as CMYK plus any Pantone references.

If all you have is a JPG or PNG, send it anyway; we will tell you whether it will hold up at print size, and redraw the logo if it will not. Keep any photographic images at 300 dpi at final size.

Yes, within a measurable tolerance rather than a promise. Give us the Pantone reference or a physical item to match.

We check the printed result with a spectrophotometer, an instrument that measures colour as a number instead of relying on the eye. Our general printing tolerance is ΔE ≤ 2.0, and we hold brand colour and logo areas to ΔE ≤ 1.0 — close enough that most people cannot see any difference. Matching against the approved sample runs to ΔE ≤ 1.5.

One thing to expect: the same colour looks slightly different on uncoated paper, coated paper and ribbon, because each surface absorbs ink differently. We show you this at the sample stage rather than letting it surprise you.

It depends where the job is:

• Before the printing plates are made — changes are straightforward and usually free.
• After the plates are made — a change means new plates and a new setup cost.
• Once printing has started — the material already run is lost.

So tell us as early as you can, even if you are only thinking about it. We will tell you honestly what stage we are at and what the change would cost.

Paper bag samples are typically ready in 3–5 working days. Rigid and folding boxes run through a five-step sample process that takes 3–10 days in total, because the structure has to be cut, assembled and tested with your product inside.

If you are working to a launch date, say so at the brief stage — we can speed up sampling.

Yes, and it is the fastest way to start. Post us a sample of your current bag or box. We measure it, identify the paper weight and finish, and quote a like-for-like version — or point out where a small change would cut your cost or your shipping volume without changing how it looks on the shelf.

You do not need artwork, drawings or recommended sizes for this. Your existing packaging is the specification.

Add three blocks together: sampling, production, then transport. Transport is usually the largest and the one people forget.

Sea transit varies by destination port and time of year, so we confirm the actual figure for your lane at the quotation stage rather than quoting an average. As a planning rule: work backwards from your on-shelf date and start the conversation about ten weeks ahead for a sea shipment.

It is the single biggest scheduling factor in Chinese manufacturing, and it moves every year. Factories close for roughly two weeks, and both the weeks before and after are congested — production slots fill early and freight space is tight.

If your stock is needed in the first quarter, place the order well before the shutdown rather than just before it. Tell us your deadline and we will tell you the last safe date to start, in writing.

Shipping is not in the initial unit price, so that you can see the packaging cost on its own. We quote it separately once we know the delivery address and postcode.

We can deliver on whichever terms suit you: DDP (we handle freight, customs and duties, and you get one all-in price to your door), FOB (you arrange shipping from our port) or CIF. Most of our brand customers choose DDP because it removes customs handling from their side entirely.

Yes. One production run can be divided between different warehouses, regions or retail distribution centres, with the cartons labelled for each destination.

Tell us the split at the quotation stage rather than after production, so the boxes are packed and marked correctly the first time.

Three checkpoints, all documented for every batch:

1. Approved sample. The physical sample you sign off becomes the reference for the whole run.
2. Checks during production. Colour, print position, finishing and handle assembly are checked while the job is running, not only at the end.
3. Final inspection. Finished stock is inspected against an agreed AQL sampling standard before it is packed.

AQL is a recognised international method for deciding how many units to pull from a batch and how many faults are acceptable. We keep the records, and you can ask for them.

Yes to both, and it is a fair thing to ask. We can set up a live video audit within 1–3 working days, covering the showroom, the production floor and the finishing area.

You are welcome on site, and you can appoint a third-party inspection company such as SGS or Bureau Veritas to inspect before shipment. We do not treat any of this as unusual. More about our plants is on the about us page.

We keep a physical sample from every production run on file. When you reorder, the new run is checked against that retained sample rather than against the specification sheet alone — which is how a colour can drift a little each time and end up visibly wrong after three years.

We keep your materials, paper weights and finishing settings on record too, so a reorder does not start from scratch. You can see how this plays out across repeat programmes in our customer case studies.

The artwork is yours, and it stays yours. The print layout (dieline) we produce for your product is developed for you and we will hand over the files.

Any setup or plate cost that appears in your quote is stated as a separate line — never hidden in the unit price and never introduced after you have paid a deposit. If you ever move production elsewhere, you will not have to start the design work again.

Usually without any redesign. Send us a physical sample of what you buy today. We measure it, match the materials and quote against it directly, so you are comparing like with like rather than a new specification.

Most brands then run one design with us first while the existing supplier carries the rest — it lets you check the quality and the paperwork on a real order before you move the whole programme. We are comfortable with that pace. Our guide to choosing a paper bag manufacturer sets out what to check in any supplier, including us.

One account manager owns your project from the first quote to delivery, so you are not re-explaining the job to a new person each time.

Our average reply time is 3 hours, and 95%+ of messages are answered inside 3 hours during working days. Specifications are confirmed in writing at each checkpoint, so there is a record of what was agreed rather than a memory of a call. Start a conversation here.