Guide
How to read a packaging quote, and the four things suppliers leave off
Most of the difficulty in comparing quotes is that they are not comparing the same thing.
1. The unit
Corrugated is often quoted per thousand, written "per M" or "/M". £128 per M is £0.128 a case. It is not £128 a case, and it is not £0.128 per thousand.
Watch the capital. A lower-case "m" in most other contexts means metres, which matters for film, tape and strapping. Getting that wrong divides a price by a thousand and the quote looks unbeatable.
If a quote does not say, ask before you compare. A price with no unit is not a partial answer, it is an unusable one.
2. Tooling
A new box shape needs a cutting die. That is usually £400 to £1,200, charged once. It is often on a separate line, sometimes in a footnote, occasionally not mentioned until the first invoice.
Amortise it over what you will actually buy, not over the minimum order. £850 across 200,000 cases is £0.004 a case. Across 20,000 it is £0.043, which is a third of the price of the box.
Ask who owns the die afterwards. If they do, moving supplier means paying for it again.
3. Carriage
"Ex works" means you collect. "Delivered" means they deliver, but ask to where and how often: a delivered price for full pallets to one address is not a delivered price for two pallets a week to a unit with no forklift.
A quote that says nothing about carriage has not included it. Silence is not the same as "included", and it is worth £1,000 to £3,000 a year on a line this size.
4. Payment terms
30 days against 60 days is real money at the moment you need working capital, and it is the easiest thing on this list to negotiate because it costs the supplier less than a price reduction does.
If a cheaper quote comes with worse terms, price the difference before deciding. On £28,000 a year, moving from 60 days to 30 costs you roughly £2,300 of working capital permanently.
The five questions that make quotes comparable
- Is that per case or per thousand?
- Is there tooling, and who owns the die?
- Is carriage included, to this address, at this drop size?
- What is the minimum order, and can it be called off in batches?
- What are the payment terms, and how long is the price held?
Asking all five of everyone is what makes a round worth running. Asking them of one supplier is only a conversation.