Category
Packaging
Corrugated cases, folding cartons, labels, pallet wrap, tape, void fill.
Why this category drifts
Board prices move with pulp, energy and freight, and they move often. A case price agreed two years ago is almost never the right price today — in either direction.
What we watch
ONS producer prices for corrugated paper and paperboard, plastic products, and the energy inputs that drive both.
Alongside your own invoices — a supplier's own price rise is better evidence than any national average, and it is the one thing no index can tell you.
Why the quotes are hard to compare
Packaging is where quotes are hardest to compare by eye: one supplier quotes per thousand, another per case, a third adds tooling for a new die and a fourth excludes carriage.
CostSpring converts every quote to a landed cost per unit you actually use, keeps the caveats attached to the number they qualify, and tells you what the gap is worth in the rhythm you order in.
Where to start
Add the two or three lines you suspect have not been looked at in a while. If nothing is worth acting on, you will be told that too — an alert nobody needs is worse than no alert.