What is contract packing?
Contract packing – also known as co-packing – is the practice of assembling and packing a manufacturer’s products into secondary packaging: boxes, packets, bags and wraps. A contract packing company gets your products retail-ready, or adapts product packaging for different retailers, markets or purposes.
But that’s not all. It’s really a third-party logistics process and, depending on the contract packer you work with, can include everything from quality-checking a delivery from your suppliers, to packing an advent calendar, to barcoding and applying new labels to existing packaging, to redesigning and printing the product packaging for promotional samples for an exhibition.
Co-packing materials typically include various plastics, from blister or clamshell packaging to thermoformed shrink-wrap, sleeves and bags, or certain forms of cardboard boxes, containers and carriers.
Co-packing has become increasingly popular because it gives you, the manufacturer, an expert packaging service that’s flexible and agile, with none of the overheads of maintaining your own packing facilities, machines and personnel.
What sort of company uses a co-packing company – and for what products?
Companies across all sectors rely on contract packing to fulfil their various needs. Most products are destined for the consumer, primarily via wholesale or retail outlets, but also through mailouts, exhibitions and trade shows.
- Food and drinks companies: from ingredients and sports supplements to shrink-wrapped trays of tins, every form of confectionery and all sorts of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks
- Beauty & cosmetics companies: from soap to makeup, for travel-size bottles to Christmas gift packs
- Household goods manufacturers: adhesives to dish cloths, laundry to bathroom Medical and dental – from antibacterial sprays and wipes to bandages, toothpaste and dental picks
- Pharmaceutical: over-the-counter medication, blister packs and single unit dose devices
- Publishers: from box sets for books, CDs and DVDs to promotional launch gift sets
And many more. Depending on the co-packing firm, you can outsource the printing and packaging of almost any form of product and its point of sale materials, all the way up to packaging for industrial products.
It isn’t just the largest companies that rely on contract packaging support to repackage goods for different markets or retailers. Small and medium-sized firms often outsource their packing needs entirely and it’s a cost-effective way to test scaling up production or to launch entirely new products or rebrand old stock.
The benefits of co-packing
What are the benefits of working with a contract packing company to outsource your product packing?
- Access to the cumulative knowledge of years of packaging and repackaging goods of all sorts, across a number of sectors. Lessons learned and innovations developed for one client’s unusual needs have been absorbed and introduced for the benefit of every future client.
- A flexible and agile service, able to assess quickly the complications, implications and deliverables of any automated packing job and advise on any hand-packing elements to be considered.
- No need to buy, lease or maintain expensive specialist packaging equipment which may be underused or unnecessary.
- Reduced or zero costs for you, in terms of warehousing, stock management, packaging materials, operations staff recruitment and retention, and other logistics considerations and costs.
- Greater choice in the packaging and repackaging you choose for current and future products. You are no longer restricted or limited by your own facilities, machines or in-house staffing levels. Partnering with a co-packing company gives you access to every packaging machine and material in their portfolio, allowing you to quickly adapt and offer alternatives for a huge variety of markets and retailers.
- Overflow capacity. When you carry out your own packing, but seasonal fluctuations or a new product line puts pressure on your existing space and equipment, a contract packer can handle the excess, to lighten the load.
- Access to hand-packing expertise when you’re producing awkwardly shaped or delicate items that a machine isn’t able to pack.
- Centralising your product storage, wrapping and packing, labelling and reworking, inventory management and distribution in one convenient location. Codex is positioned right near the M1, just north of Luton Airport and London, and can take pallet deliveries, run a range of co-packing services, store your packaged products until you want them shipped, and then handle distribution within the UK, around Europe and across the world.
What services do contract packers offer?
The advantage most co-packers offer is the ability to tailor their service and workflow to your exact needs. That means you can pick and choose according to where you’ll see the greatest benefits.
The most common contract packing methods
Flow wrapping
Wraps products in a plastic film as they pass along a conveyer belt. Find out more about the flow wrapping services we offer.
Shrink wrapping
Contains products in heat-responsive plastic which shrinks to form a tight seal. Find out more about our shrink wrapping services.
Sleeve wrapping
Wrapping products or a number of products in a tight plastic sleeve.
Overwrapping
Applying an additional layer of film either for enhanced visual or protective qualities.
Pouch packing and sachet packing
Inserting products into various forms of pouches or sachets. Find out more about our sachet filling services.
Gift packing
Assembling packaging for seasonal or special occasion products and sets.
Hand packing
Hand-picking and packing items which are more fragile, tricky to pack, or for smaller production runs where packing by hand is more cost-effective.
Relabelling and barcoding
Updating existing packaging by printing labels and stickers with new branding, new promotional messages or offers, new prices and/or retail-ready barcodes.
Tailor a co-packing service to suit your needs
Packaging design
Including print layout design and the configuration of the packaging itself.
Printing
Including printed packaging, artwork and printed materials to be co-packed (eg manuals, brochures, cards).
Storage and stock management
Taking deliveries, storing pre- and post-packaging, and providing reports on products and associated printed/packaging components.
Quality checking and reworking
Hand-checking existing consignments or goods from a new supplier, and repackaging faulty packaging.
Package assembly and packing fulfilment
Packaging production lines and hand picking and hand packing.
Logistics
Addressing, loading and shipping for onward distribution.
How much does co-packing cost?
Costing a co-packing project requires taking into account a number of factors.
How large is your production run? There are usually economies of scale with co-packing, so the larger your order, the less it costs per item.
What sort of packaging do you need? Different methods require different materials, and different quantities of materials, so balancing budget against benefits is your best approach.
Do you need your packaging to be printed? The material you need printing on affects the complexity and cost.
Do you need additional services, like relabelling or end-to-end storage and distribution?
Every co-packing job requires a quote tailored to the particular task.
For a competitive quote to outsource your next contract packaging requirement – or just to find out more about which co-packing solution would work best for you and your product – get in touch with the Codex team today on 0845 838 0040 or email [email protected].
