The Role of Product Samples in Contract Packaging

By George J. Newton, Contributing Writer

Investing in the manufacturing infrastructure required to handle the largescale packaging of your products is expensive and unnecessary. For many companies, the cost-effective solution is contract packaging. Experienced co-packers offer companies their infrastructure, knowledge, expertise, and scalability to ensure the finished products are successfully distributed. The outsourcing of supply chains to co-packers helps alleviate the stress of packaging and distribution on businesses.

Now that your business has made the cost-effective decision to work with a co-packer, you will likely be required to provide product samples in order to move forward with the contract packing agreement. There are several reasons why product samples are required for contract packaging.

To calculate the cost of the project

Depending on the quantity of products you want packaged, the calculation of the cost of the total materials is also required.

Experienced co-packers often require businesses to provide product samples before entering into an agreement to package their products for them. The product samples enables the co-packer to determine the most suitable packaging materials for the products. Once they select the materials that best fit your brand and preserve your products well, they can provide an accurate cost per product packaged. Depending on the quantity of products you want packaged, they can calculate the cost of the total materials required.

In addition to cost of the materials, the packaging machinery necessary to package the product will affect the price of the contract packaging project. In order to determine the appropriate machinery needed to package your products, they require product samples.

All of these variables that require your product samples determine the total cost of outsourcing your packaging and distribution to an experienced co-packer.

To ensure the finished product meets your expectations

After the most suitable materials for packaging and the machinery required to package your product are selected, your co-packer can provide you with their own sample of the packaged products. You can review these samples of the final product to ensure they meet your standards. This allows businesses to inspect the quality and request any adjustments to the packaging.

Only after you approve the sample will they begin full production of packaging your product. The product samples you provided will save both you and the co-packer time and money. It gives you control over the process by confirming you are satisfied with the materials and the aesthetics of the packaging.

This is one of the main reasons why product samples play such a crucial role in the manufacturing process. It ensures the packaging of your product meets your brand standards and protects the quality of your product. Providing your co-packer a sample of your products guarantees that the final products exceed your expectations.

Contract packaging is more than just packaging, according to Robert Wiley, a recruiter at Britstudent and Write My X. “Co-packers offer businesses an opportunity to capitalize on their industry experience and expertise. They can help a business grow by getting a pristine finished product into the hands of consumers and scale production to match any growth.”

To provide a timeline for the final product

Once you approve the packaging samples offered by the co-packer, they can begin full production of packing your products. Based on the total number of products you need packaged, they can confirm whether or not the timeframe you requested is feasible.

Your requested completion date may also alter the cost of your contract packaging.

To determine whether or not the co-packer is the right fit

Co-packagers can help a business grow by getting a pristine finished product into the hands of consumers and scale production to match growth.

Providing potential co-packers with sample products will ultimately allow you to decide which contract packager is the right fit for your business. The packaging samples of the final product they provide, the quoted total cost of your project, and the timeframe within which they can complete the packaging will help you decide the right co-packer for your products.

“Co-packers do the heavy lifting,” explains Steven Duncan, a business writer at Originwritings and 1day2write. “Companies can focus on designing their products, marketing, and other core competencies while contract packagers complete the processes required to prepare their finished product for distribution.”

Regardless of which experienced co-packer you decide to enter into a contract packaging agreement with, it is important to provide prospective vendors with product samples first. This enables you to make the most informed decision for your business and determine which co-packer can deliver the best final packaged product that will help boost sales and grow your business.

About the Author

George J. Newton is a business development manager and content writer at Academic Brits. You can find his work at PhD Kingdom and Next Coursework.