Moving from Stock to Custom Printed Packaging: Your Questions Answered

Switching from stock packaging to custom printed packaging is one of the biggest steps a growing brand takes. It's also where most of the hesitation lives: the upfront costs, the minimums, the lead times, the "what if we get it wrong" worry. Here are the honest answers to the ones we hear most.

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Q: We're happy with stock packaging. Why would we move to custom printing at all?

Stock packaging gets you to market quickly and cheaply, and for some brands that's exactly right. The move to custom is worth it when your packaging needs to do more than contain the product, when it needs to build the brand on shelf, communicate sustainability credentials, or differentiate you from everyone else using the same blank pouch. Custom printing turns the pack itself into your most-seen piece of marketing. The trade-off is that you take on more upfront cost, higher minimums, and a longer setup process. The rest of these questions are about being clear-eyed on those trade-offs.

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Q: What's the minimum order? This is usually the deal-breaker for us.

It's the most important number to get straight, because it's a real jump from stock. For custom printed pouches, our minimums are 6,000 units on digital printing and 10,000 units on rotogravure. Film bags like mailers and poly bags start at 100,000 units, and paper bag formats at 10,000 units. Some specialised formats run much higher, thermoforming film, for example, is a 50,000-unit minimum.

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If your annual volume per design sits below these numbers, custom may not be the right move yet, or you may need to consolidate SKUs to hit a minimum on fewer designs. It's better to know this before you fall in love with a design.

Read more on minimum order quantities here.

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Q: Why is digital cheaper to start but gravure the "default"?

They suit different stages. Digital printing has no plates and no setup fees, a lower 6,000-unit minimum, and lets you run multiple designs in a single production run, which makes it ideal for shorter runs, multiple SKUs, or a test run before you commit. Rotogravure is plate-based and is the workhorse for runs of 10,000+ units, complex designs, and the most consistent colour across large and repeat orders.

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A common path is to launch on digital to validate the design and the market, then move to gravure once your volumes justify the plate investment and you want maximum colour consistency.

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Q: What are plate costs, and why does everyone warn us about them?

On plate-based printing (gravure and flexo), you need one plate per colour, per design. It's a one-time setup fee per SKU, and the good news is plates are reused on repeat orders, so you only pay once per design. The warning exists because it's the most commonly forgotten line in a quote. A few things to know:

• Matte and rough-matte finishes each require their own plate on top of your colour plates.
• Flat bottom pouches and quad seal pouches always need two sets of print plates because of how they're constructed.
• Digital printing has no print plate costs, which is part of why it can be the cheaper entry point. Again, the finish plates are separate to this. 

Always ask for plate costs to be itemised in your quote so there are no surprises.

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Q: We have specific brand colours. Will custom printing match them exactly?

This depends entirely on the print method, and it's worth understanding before you sign off artwork. On gravure and flexo, we use the Pantone system, pre-mixed inks matched precisely to your Pantone codes, so brand-colour consistency is excellent. On digital printing, output is CMYK. You can supply a Pantone code as a reference, but the result is a CMYK approximation, not a true pre-mixed match. If exact brand-colour fidelity is non-negotiable, that's a point in favour of gravure.

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Two more realities worth setting expectations on: very bright, neon, or highly saturated colours that look vivid on screen (RGB) often fall outside what CMYK can physically reproduce, so they print duller, this is physics, not a quality issue. And where exact matching is critical, a physical colour reference is the most reliable method, but it must be in hand before production starts or it will delay the job. We always recommend print sampling before a full run to confirm colour.

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Q: How much longer is the lead time versus pulling stock off a shelf?

Meaningfully longer, and you should plan for it. With custom you're not picking from existing inventory, you're setting up artwork, generating dielines, making plates (on gravure), proofing, and producing. Most of our flexible packaging is made overseas, so shipping is part of the timeline too. The practical implication: custom packaging needs to be planned around your launch or reorder dates, not ordered reactively. Build in time for sampling and proof sign-off rather than treating those as optional.

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Q: What if the design or fit is wrong once it's printed? With stock we can just reorder.

This is the genuine risk of custom, and we'd rather be upfront about it. Because everything is made to your specification, a mistake in dimensions or colour can't be quietly swapped the way a stock item can. That's why we build in safeguards: we don't recommend specific pouch dimensions ourselves, because every product, fill weight, and filling line is different, that decision sits with you, and we strongly recommend sampling before committing to a full production run. The upfront discipline (proofing, physical samples, colour approval) is exactly what protects you from an expensive printed mistake.

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Q: Are there hidden costs beyond the unit price and plates?

A few format-specific ones are worth knowing about, because they're easy to miss:

• Mould fees. Some formats and features require a custom mould, quad seal pouches (always), shaped pouches (always), spouts, moulded and die-cut handles, and any non-standard bottom gusset or tear-notch shape. A standard stand-up pouch with a Doyen gusset or flat bottom pouch has no mould fee, which is part of why it's such a common starting point.
• Spout custom colours. Custom spout colours kick in at a 30,000-unit minimum; below that you choose from available stock colours.
• Finishes and advanced techniques. Soft-touch finishes, UV spot, hot foil, and metallic effects all add cost, and some (like hot foil and holographic film) add non-recyclable material to the pack, worth weighing if sustainability claims matter to you.

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Q: Will custom printing affect our sustainability claims?

It can, in ways stock packaging hides from view, so it's worth designing with end-of-life in mind. A few of the most common watch-outs:

• Decorative finishes. Hot foil stamping and holographic film add non-recyclable material and can't carry recyclability claims.
• Metallic looks. If you want a metallic effect, metallic Pantone inks are the most recyclability-friendly route, because they don't add a separate material layer the way foil or a metallised substrate does.
• Coffee and valves. If you're moving to a custom coffee pouch and want an end-to-end compostable claim, the degassing valve also has to be certified compostable, a standard valve invalidates the claim.
• Closures. Tin ties (the only closure on side gusset pouches) can't be recycled or composted.

Custom printing is actually an opportunity here: it lets you put verified, accurate sustainability messaging on the pack, as long as the structure and finishes back up the claim.

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Q: How do we actually get our artwork onto a custom pack?

You add your artwork to a dieline, the flat template for your chosen format and size. We have a free dieline generator that produces dielines for any format and size, and a guide on how to add artwork to it. One technical note that affects design: pouches are reverse-printed on the inside of the outer layer, which protects the design, whereas paper bags are printed directly on the surface and are more prone to scuffing, so colours behave differently and a protective coating is recommended. Files should be supplied in CMYK for digital, or Pantone-referenced for gravure and flexo, RGB files will shift in colour when converted.

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Q: What's the lowest-risk way to make the move?

If you're nervous about the jump, a sensible path looks like this: start with a versatile, no-mould-fee format like a standard stand-up pouch; use digital printing for the first run to keep minimums and setup costs down and to test the design in market; sample before committing, and approve colour on a physical print rather than a screen; then graduate to gravure once volumes justify the plate investment and you want maximum colour consistency on repeat orders. That sequence keeps your upfront risk low while you learn how custom behaves for your specific product.

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Questions specific to your product, format, or volumes are always worth a direct conversation. Every brand's move from stock to custom looks a little different.

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