There is no account to open and no registration wall. The first email can be a specification, a competitor’s product code, or a photograph of the case you currently buy.
1. Enquiry
What we need: what the packaging has to do, and roughly how much of it.
Precision helps but is not required at this stage. “240 litre wheelie bin liners, about 40 pallets a year, currently paying too much for them” is enough to start. If you have a specification sheet from your current supplier, send that — we will quote against it line for line so the comparison is real.
Mixed categories are expected. An enquiry covering sacks, film and pallets is the case this business exists for, not a complication.
Turnaround: we reply within one working day, from a named person.
2. Specification and samples
What happens: we put the specification in writing and you confirm it.
For sacks that means material, gauge in microns, useful width and length in millimetres, seal type, colour and pack quantity. For film it means cast or blown, micron, width, core and pre-stretch. For pallets it means dimensions, load class, timber grade and whether ISPM 15 treatment is required.
This step exists because a price quoted against a vague specification changes later, and a quotation that changes is worse than no quotation.
Samples ship within 5 working days of the specification being agreed, free of charge for standard grades. Custom colours and printed samples are quoted separately because they require a short production run.
Turnaround: 1–2 working days for the written specification.
3. Quotation
What you get: a delivered price, not a factory-gate price with freight to be advised.
Every quotation states:
- unit price and price per pack or pallet
- the Incoterm — EXW, FCA or DAP to your gate
- pallet configuration: units per case, cases per pallet, pallet weight and height
- how many pallets fill a 13.6 m trailer, and what a part-load costs
- lead time from order confirmation
- payment terms
- validity, normally 14 days
Polyethylene and paper prices move with resin and pulp markets, which is why validity is 14 days rather than open-ended. On repeat programmes we fix prices quarterly instead.
Turnaround: 2 working days.
4. Production and quality control
What happens: the order goes to the factories, and we inspect before it leaves.
Pre-shipment inspection checks the agreed specification: gauge measured at several points across the web, useful width and length, weld and seal strength, board grade and burst, print registration and colour against the approved proof. You get the report before dispatch, not on request.
Lead time is 12–15 working days ex works for stock specifications and 18–22 for custom sizes, custom colours or print. Lead time starts when the specification is confirmed in writing, not when the enquiry arrives — this is the single most common source of misunderstanding in packaging supply, so we state the start date on the order confirmation.
See quality control for what happens when something is off-spec.
5. Consolidated dispatch
What leaves: one load, one invoice, one document pack.
Goods from all four categories are consolidated at our dispatch point in Poland and loaded together. You receive:
- a single commercial invoice
- one CMR
- one packing list showing every line and its pallet
- Declarations of Conformity for every packaging type in the load
- packaging weights by material, ready for your EPR return
Transit is 2–4 days to Germany and the Netherlands, 5–7 to Scandinavia.
What slows an order down
In order of how often it actually happens:
- A specification confirmed late. The clock starts on confirmation, so a week spent deciding on gauge is a week added to delivery.
- Artwork. Printed packaging cannot start until print files are approved. Budget three working days for proofing, more if the design changes.
- A first order with new payment terms. Production starts on receipt of the deposit, not on receipt of the purchase order.
- Peak season. September to November is the busiest quarter in packaging across Europe; book six weeks out rather than three.