Every product deserves a great package, but there’s no getting around the fact that packaging is costly. At Indepak, we’ve been thermoforming packaging for retail products, specialty foods and personal care items since 1967, and we’ve found many ways to reduce packaging costs for our clients, including the following.
1. Same Package, Different Product
When you use the same thermoform packaging design for multiple products, this definitely can reduce costs. You won’t be paying for multiple designs and you can opt to produce more packaging in a single production run, and this can save you quite a bit of money. Smaller runs are more expensive, but they can be the only option if every product you sell has a completely unique package design.
Using the same design for multiple products is a great option for our specialty foods clients. For instance, if you sell yogurt or sour cream, all of your yogurt pots or sour cream tubs naturally tend to be the same size. However, if you sell cookies or deli meals or another type of food product, using the same size package can reduce costs and it can even help boost your brand awareness for consumers.
This strategy can work for personal care items and even many retail products. While you might have retail products that contain different parts or different size components, we can design a standard packaging shell that works with all of your products and then simply provide you with custom thermoform trays that hold individual parts.
2. Let Us Help With Inventory
Often companies don’t want to opt for large production runs simply because they don’t have the ability to store the inventory. With Indepak, we can provide you with inventory management. We have 50,000 square feet of warehouse space, and we can even design a cost-effective inventory management system.
This system can range from a simple minimum/maximum system to more sophisticated customer-based web portals. When you need to have packaging shipped, our on-time shipment rate exceeds 99.5%.
3. Consider Combination Designs
Many people mistakenly believe that thermoforming packaging means that plastic is the only material used in the design. While we can make your packaging entirely out of thermoform plastic, we also are experts in creating combination designs that incorporate paper or pulp.
Opting for a trap blister, for instance, not only can reduce your costs it’s also a sustainable option because you use a bit less plastic. Of course, we can design your package using materials with recycled content, as well, and sometimes even with bio-based plastics if it’s appropriate for your product. Sustainability is always on our minds as we design every package.
4. Smaller Packages Save Money
When you use fewer materials to create your thermoform packaging, you’ll naturally save money. We can create a design that protects and displays your product while limiting the overall amount of materials used.
Not only will this reduce your packaging costs, it’s also another way to increase your sustainability. Keep in mind that virtually all of the materials we use at Indepak are recyclable, and, again, we can use materials with recycled content for many packaging projects. Recycled content can be a bit pricier, of course, but if you advertise your sustainable efforts on your labeling, this can attract consumers.
Advertising your sustainability is a powerful marketing tool, not to mention its positive impact on the planet. If consumers have two similar products in front of them and one obviously has more eco-friendly packaging, this can drive consumers to choose the more sustainable option.
5. Make It Less Colorful
While a four-color label definitely attracts attention, opting for black and white with just one carefully chosen spot color can reduce your costs. Four-color printing is very expensive, and in some cases, it really cannot be avoided, but if you can create a clever design using just one color beyond black, this can cut costs.
You also can use halftones, such as varying shades of gray to create interest in the design without boosting costs. You also can use halftones of your spot color, which allows you to increase the visual impact of your label without using multiple colors.
At Indepak, we’ve been thermoforming packaging for clients in a wide range of industries for more than half a century. Our expert design team and in-house tooling allow us to create custom packaging that fits your product needs and your budget. If you need custom packaging, get in touch with us at any time to discuss your project.
