Rising input costs, fragmented supply chains, and legacy packaging decisions often leave companies unknowingly overspending on their packaging. Reducing packaging costs, however, can be a simple process which can help achieve considerable savings, in the range of 10-20% of a packaging budget. In our user-friendly action plan, we provide an overview of the main components and drivers of packaging costs and how these can be optimised. Let's start with the basics. Any paperboard packaging has three main cost elements: 1. Raw materials cost They normally comprise paper, ink, coating, various films and foils and adhesive. Paper is typically the largest component of the total cost of raw materials. 2. Production process costs These are the costs of production, normally broken down into press (printing). post press (die cutting, folding, etc.) and manual work (box making, etc.). 3. Freight and logistics costs If you are purchasing your packaging locally or from within the same country, the cost of storage and transportation may be a small fraction of the total packaging cost. If you are importing, these costs can sometimes add up to almost 50% of your landed price, and hence it's worth considering how to optimise these. While the ratio of each of these costs remains relatively similar for different products within a category of paperboard packaging (folding cartons, Corrugated/ litho-laminated cartons and rigid boxes), they can vary between each category. At Kumar Printers, we provide end-to-end packaging solutions, managing everything from design and production to printing and final supply, tailored to meet the specific needs of B2B businesses, and are able to provide cost optimisation options for each aspect of the packaging production process. Action Plan for Optimising Packaging Costs Now that we have a high-level overview of our costs, let us take a deep dive into our action plan for optimising these costs: Cost comparison across suppliers Right-sizing & Light-weighting Freight and logistics optimisation Cost and quantity optimisation How can Kumar Printers help you? Step 1: Supplier Cost Comparison The simplest way to identify cost savings on packaging is to reach out to new suppliers and request quotes for your packs. Different suppliers have access to varied raw material supply chains, use different technologies for converting and may thus provide very different quotations for the same product. For example, a packaging company that uses offset printing will be more cost-effective for larger quantities, while a printer utilising a digital press may be cheaper for smaller run jobs. Similarly, a packaging manufacturer based in a country that relies on imported paper such as the United Kingdom, France or Germany would have very different raw material costs compared to a packaging supplier based in the USA, China or India, where paper production is a large industry. Take some time to source quotes from suppliers in different geographies and those with different technologies at their disposal, so that you have fresh pricing options to compare. Most suppliers offer free quotations and only need your product specifications to process a quote. Consider starting the process with your least complex or highest volume packs, as these will offer the most scope for cost savings with the lowest risk. This process can unlock opportunities for cost reduction and supply chain de-risking without making any changes to the packaging itself. Case Study: Pros and Cons of Digital and Offset Printing Offset and Digital are two of the most commonly used technologies for packaging printing. They are considered broadly equal in terms of quality of print; there are differences in unit economics due to variations in machine setup and maximum speeds. Overall, Digital Printing is a better option for newer brands that need greater flexibility and lower costs for smaller orders, while larger brands that need larger quantities of packaging will find offset printing to be more cost-effective. For more information on the relative advantages and disadvantages of digital vs offset printing, read our detailed blog post. Also read: Offset vs Digital Printing: What Works Best for Your Packaging Orders? Step 2: Right-sizing & Light-weighting Take a second look at your currently in-use cartons and boxes, keeping in mind the size, weight and fragility of your products. Well-designed packaging needs to fulfil 2 basic requirements: Protection: Packaging should keep the main product/ primary packaging safe and secure through the entire supply chain journey. Information: The pack should be large enough for the printed product information to be clear and legible. Once these requirements are met, any further increases to pack size or material thickness do not add any additional value, only cost. Since raw material cost makes up anywhere from 60-80% of a carton's costs, optimising carton size (right-sizing) and paperboard thickness (light-weighting), if done correctly, can yield immediate and substantial cost savings. Pro Tip Step 3: Freight and Logistics Optimisation For those companies importing their packaging or sourcing from a distant location, it may be worth exploring in detail how to best optimise freight costs. If your supplier is quoting a delivered/ landed rate to you, feel free to ask for an ex-works price and source a separate quotation for the transportation to your factory. If there are any savings to be unlocked by organising your own pickup, this is an easy way to spot them. Also, consider whether palletisation is strictly necessary for transportation via sea. It may be cheaper to receive material without palletisation and then palletise at your factory or at the receiving port (or not at all). This can enable you to fit 20% more material into a container and has a negligible impact on product safety during transit by sea. Lastly, review the design of the packaging itself. Is it suitable for optimal long-distance freight costs? Consider switching from conventional rigid boxes to a collapsible rigid box format, or even consider packing smaller boxes into larger ones. Step 4: Cost - Quantity Optimisation Many companies prefer to source smaller batches of packaging to optimise for storage space and to achieve greater flexibility in their product mix. What is not intuitively understood by many packaging buyers, however, is the cost savings that can be unlocked by increasing the quantity ordered. Consider the case study below, where we have taken a rigid box and calculated production and freight costs for quantities from 1000 pieces all the way up to 200,000 pieces. These are real but simplified prices (in USD) that show the relationship between quantity and cost. As you can see, the biggest drop in price is unlocked by increasing the order size from just 1000 to 5000. Further increases in order size slowly and steadily reduce the price further. To understand the inverse relation between order size and unit price, consider the following factors: Production fixed costs - These costs can be related to items and tools like cutting dies, foiling blocks and printing plates or can be associated with machine setup times. Logistics fixed costs: Certain international logistics charges like customer clearance, document submission, etc., are fixed and chargeable regardless of the size of the shipment. Logistics variable costs: As the size of a shipment increases, the cost per CBM or KG normally reduces. If the cost of one CBM of cargo is 100X on a less-than-container-load (LCL) basis, the per CBM cost after booking a 20-foot container is 70X, and the per CBM cost for a 40-foot container is 40X. How can Kumar Printers help you? At Kumar Printers, we understand that most manufacturing industries are under increasing cost pressures, with uncertain supply chains and inflation eating into margins for businesses around the world. In this context, any cost savings in a major spend category can translate into a competitive advantage for your business. For all our export customers, we aim to help you reduce your packaging spend by 15-20%, even after including freight costs. Our cost reduction strategy has the following elements: A constant focus on efficient procurement, production and logistics ensures that we can offer competitive rates for your current products without any changes to specifications. For customers who can collaborate with our product design teams and are open to incorporating their suggested changes into their packs, these cost savings can be increased further. Additionally, to ensure full transparency on our pricing, we are happy to offer prices at various quantity tiers and in terms as per your preference (Ex Works, FOB, DDU, DDP), so that you can compare various options and pick the one that suits you best. Reach out to us today for a free quote and let us discuss how we can help you optimise your packaging budget.

Most companies do not question their packaging supply chain until something goes wrong. A missed shipment. An inconsistent print run. A supplier who cannot accommodate a new pack format. By the time these problems surface, they have already cost time, money, and in some cases, a product launch. The reality is that your business is not static, and your packaging supply chain should not be either. As you scale, enter new markets, introduce new SKUs, or update your sustainability commitments, the packaging suppliers that served you well at one stage of growth may not be the right fit for the next. This does not mean you need to replace them. It does mean you need to regularly assess whether the relationship is still working and whether the capabilities on both sides are still aligned. This guide covers the practical steps involved in doing exactly that. The Foundation: Clarity on Both Sides Before any formal vendor review, it helps to be honest about how most supplier relationships actually work. Packaging buyers often have a general sense of what they need but have never formally documented it. Suppliers, in turn, develop assumptions about a client's requirements based on past orders, without ever being told explicitly what good looks like. The result is a relationship that functions adequately in normal conditions but becomes fragile the moment requirements change or volumes grow. The most effective way to prevent this is straightforward: be explicit about your requirements and measure your suppliers against them on a consistent basis. Suppliers who receive clear, regular feedback know exactly where they need to improve. Buyers who understand their suppliers' actual capabilities, lead times, and process constraints are far less likely to be caught off guard. A mismatch between what a buyer expects and what a packaging supplier can actually deliver is the root cause of the vast majority of packaging supply chain problems. In most cases, it is not a failure of intent on either side. It is simply a failure of communication. Step 1: Conduct a Structured Vendor Performance Review A semi-annual or annual vendor performance review is one of the most useful and underutilised tools in packaging procurement. It does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be consistent. When evaluating your current suppliers, consider the following across each major area: Quality — What is the defect rate on incoming packaging? Are quality issues recurring or isolated? Are root causes being identified and addressed, or are the same problems appearing across multiple deliveries? Delivery — What is the on-time delivery rate? When delays occur, how much advance notice is given and how effectively are they managed? Communication — How responsive is the supplier to queries, specification changes, and escalations? Is there a designated point of contact who understands your account? Capability — Can the supplier handle your current requirements without outsourcing any part of the process? Do they have the capacity and technology to support your anticipated growth over the next 12 to 24 months? Compliance — Are all relevant certifications current? If your procurement requirements include FSC, BRC, Sedex, or GMI, is the supplier maintaining those standards consistently? The output of this review should be shared directly with your packaging suppliers. The goal is not to create a performance report for internal use; it is to give your suppliers the information they need to improve. The most effective packaging relationships are ones where both sides are working toward the same targets. Step 2: Define Clear Criteria Before Adding New Suppliers If your review identifies capability gaps that your current suppliers cannot address, adding new suppliers to your network is a reasonable response. But the qualification process matters. A new supplier who cannot consistently deliver to your standards creates more problems than it solves. A structured supplier qualification should cover the following areas: Certifications — Quality and ethical production standards are most reliably demonstrated through independent certification. Depending on your industry and geography, look for ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environmental management, BRC IOP for food-adjacent and consumer goods packaging, FSC Chain of Custody for responsibly sourced paperboard, GMI or G7 certification for colour consistency, and Sedex audit status for ethical supply chain compliance. Most certification bodies maintain searchable directories that allow you to verify a supplier's status directly, including the FSC, BRCGS, and G7 directories. Client Profile — A supplier's track record with clients in your industry is one of the most reliable indicators of their ability to handle your requirements. Look for evidence of experience with brands at a comparable scale and complexity to your own. Generic claims of capability are less useful than specific examples of similar work. Site Audit — Wherever possible, conduct a physical visit or supplier audit before formalising a new relationship. A site visit reveals things that a capability questionnaire cannot: the condition and maintenance of machinery, the training level of the production team, how quality checks are carried out on the floor, and how the facility is generally managed. If a physical visit is not practical, request a virtual audit or ask for references from existing clients in your sector. Step 3: Align Requirements and Capabilities Systematically Once you have identified a supplier worth evaluating seriously, the next step is a detailed capability assessment. The goal is to establish, with precision, where your requirements and the supplier's capabilities overlap, and where they do not. We recommend developing a standardised questionnaire for this purpose. The following questions form a practical starting point, which you should adapt based on your specific packaging formats and industry requirements: Question Which packaging formats do you produce in-house — folding cartons, rigid boxes, blister cards, corrugated boxes, pouches, tubes? Which post-press finishing processes are done in-house — foiling, embossing, lamination, window pasting, UV coating? What quality control processes are in place during and after production? What printing technology do you use, and at what press speeds? What is the minimum order quantity for each product line? What are standard production lead times for each packaging category? Are there any raw materials or processes with long procurement timelines that we should plan around? What paperboard grades, recycled materials, and speciality substrates can you source and convert? Are all processes handled in-house, or are any steps outsourced? What is your daily production capacity by product line? What are typical raw material procurement lead times? The answers to these questions will quickly reveal whether a supplier is genuinely set up to handle your requirements or whether there are structural limitations that will create friction over time. Pay particular attention to questions around outsourced processes, since any step that leaves the supplier's own facility introduces an additional point of risk in your supply chain. How Kumar Printers Can Help? Over the past 60+ years, we have worked with packaging buyers at every stage of business growth, from early-stage brands placing their first structured packaging orders to multinational procurement teams managing complex, multi-SKU programmes across multiple markets. We have worked with global companies including Venus, Gillette, Nestle, and Gurkha and Guns to develop and launch new packaging in the Indian market. Whatever the specific challenge, our team approaches every client engagement the same way: by understanding your requirements in detail before recommending anything. If your priority is cost reduction, our sales team can work through your current specifications and identify where savings are available. Where it makes sense, our product development team can suggest material alternatives or process adjustments that reduce cost without affecting pack performance or brand presentation. If you are looking to strengthen your sustainability credentials, we can advise on FSC-certified board options, plastic elimination strategies, and process changes that improve recyclability, all backed by our own certified supply chain. If you are dealing with quality problems, whether persistent defects, colour inconsistency, or structural failures, our team can help identify the root cause and implement a lasting fix rather than a workaround. All packaging development work, including structural design, sampling, and costing, is offered at zero or nominal cost to our clients. To get a free quote or to discuss your current packaging supply chain, write to us at kppl@kumarprinters.com. We are straightforward to work with, and we will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do for your business.

At Kumar Printers , we often get customer queries around MOQs and pricing for smaller quantities. Since we exclusively use offset printing at our factory, it is important for us to be able to explain to clients both the advantages and disadvantages of this technology, and how it compares to the most commonly used alternative: digital printing.  To understand the difference, let us explore a basic case study, comparing two packaging orders for folding cartons - one for 10,000 pieces and one for 100,000 pieces and analysing the difference in printing costs between offset and digital printing.  However, before diving in let us define a few key terms that will help us in our analysis.  Units per sheet (UPS) - This is the number of cartons or boxes that can be printed on a single sheet of board/ paper. If we have a job that is to be printed in 10 UPS an order for 100,000 units will be printed in (100,000/10) 10,000 sheets.  UPS of any job is normally determined by the dimensions of the carton and the sheet size the printing machine can accommodate.  Machine set up/ make ready -   This is the process during which a printing machine (offset or digital) is set up and prepared to print a new job. This process will be repeated for each new job that is loaded on the machine, after the previous job ends. If we print 5 jobs on a machine, we will have to repeat the make ready  process 5 times.  Machine speed- This is the average speed at which the printing machine can process jobs. In the case of most sheetfed printing machines, this is expressed in terms of sheets per hour (Sheets/hr). Key Assumptions for Our Case Study Let's say our job will be printed in the same sheet size on both machines and in  5 UPS . On that basis: Our small job will be 10,000/5 - 2000 sheets   Our big job will be 100,000/5 - 20,000 sheets   Machine setup time   Offset 1 hour / cost X Digital 10 mins/  Machine running speed Offset 8000 sheets per hour/ cost X Digital 3000 sheet per hour  mins/  The Key Takeaway From Our Scenarios Are: Also read: Why a CAPA Plan is Essential in Packaging and Manufacturing?

In packaging and manufacturing , quality lapses can create significant disruptions across supply chains. Beyond immediate financial losses, they may erode client confidence and damage long-standing business relationships. For this reason, structured problem-solving methodologies such as  Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) are indispensable. A CAPA Plan is more than just a quick fix. It is a structured method that ensures problems are not only corrected in the short term but also prevented from recurring in the future. The process essentially  involves three critical steps: Identifying, recording and accurately describing the problem.  Identifying the root cause and understanding why the problem occurred in the first place. Designing and implementing corrective measures to fix the current occurrence of the problem, and preventive measures to eliminate the likelihood of recurrence. An effective CAPA Plan requires careful analysis and is a collaborative process across teams. Success is not measured by how quickly the immediate issue is resolved but by whether the corrective actions can truly prevent the same problem from resurfacing. Every step of the process must be documented to build a transparent record of accountability and continuous improvement, as well as for research and learning purposes. Using the 5 Whys framework to Conduct a Root Cause Analysis: A Case Study at Kumar Printers Out of the three steps in any CAPA process, the most critical is the root cause analysis (RCA) stage. There are many models for conducting a root cause analysis, including the 5-Whys and the fishbone diagram.  At Kumar Printers , we applied the 5 Whys analysis model to investigate an issue of wet and crumbled shippers in a packaging batch for one of our customers. Here’s how the process unfolded: Step 1: Describe the issue Problem Statement: Finished product shipper cartons were received in a damaged, wet, and crumpled condition at the client's factory.  Step 2: Investigation and RCA We conducted a physical inspection of the storage area, damaged material and the transport vehicle and were able to arrive at the root cause of the problem through the following 5 whys. Why 1:  Why were the shippers wet? Because water seeped into the packaging during transport. Why 2:  Why did water seep into the packaging? Because there was a gap in the body of the vehicle (the transport vehicle was not in good condition at the time of loading) Why 3:  Why were cartons packed in a damaged vehicle? The loading team was not aware of the vehicle damage.  Why 4:  Why did the loading team not detect damage to the vehicle? Visual inspection of the vehicle was not conducted before the loading.  Why 5:  Why was the vehicle inspection not carried out? Because responsibility for vehicle inspection was not fixed in the dispatch/ vehicle loading SOP.  By the fifth “why,” we have determined that the root cause of the issue was an insufficiently or poorly designed vehicle loading standard operating procedure (SOP).  The CAPA Plan in Action With the root cause identified, the CAPA Plan was developed and implemented as follows: Corrective Action: Immediate segregation of damaged shippers and re-shipment of goods to the client. Feedback was given to the commercial vehicle supplier on the damaged truck.  Preventive Action: Vehicle loading SOP was amended to include a checkpoint and checklist for visual inspection of all vehicles before commencing loading & the warehouse team was trained based on the updated SOP.  Documentation: The entire process—from problem identification to resolution—was recorded in a CAPA register, serving as proof of corrective measures as well as a point of additional reference for continuous improvement in the future.  Why This Matters? By applying the CAPA framework with the 5 Whys mode l, we not only resolved a costly incident but also strengthened our factory's long-term quality management system. Instead of treating the issue as an isolated mishap, the team transformed it into a learning opportunity that improved processes, reduced risk, and reinforced accountability. In industries such as packaging , where precision and trust are the foundation of success, this approach ensures that mistakes do not define outcomes. Instead, they become catalysts for smarter systems, stronger teams, and better results. Also read: Offset vs Digital Printing: What Works Best for Your Packaging Orders?