Shipping Information

How each product arrives

Not everything ships flat, and that has a real effect on freight cost.

For paper tubes and rigid boxes, consolidating into fewer larger shipments usually costs materially less than several smaller ones, because carriers charge on dimensional weight rather than actual weight.

What determines your freight cost

We do not publish rates, because a rate that does not apply to your consignment is not useful. These are the variables.

• Volume and weight of the consignment, with whichever is greater usually setting the price.
• Destination, including whether it is a commercial address, a residential one or a distribution centre.
• Service level, from standard ground through to expedited.
• Receiving requirements, such as a liftgate, an appointment, inside delivery or a booking portal.
• Whether the order palletises efficiently, since part-pallet space is charged as a full pallet position.

Freight is quoted alongside the goods so you see both figures before committing. If you would rather arrange collection with your own carrier or freight forwarder, that is straightforward — tell us at quoting stage and we will prepare the consignment for collection instead.

Case counts and pallet configuration

How goods are packed matters more than it sounds, particularly if they are going to a filler or a retailer.

We pack to whatever case count suits your operation. If your filling line runs in batches of 250, cases of 250 save your team counting. If a retailer specifies units per case and a pallet pattern in their packaging guide, we pack to that specification.

Send the requirement with the enquiry rather than after production. Building a case count into the production plan costs nothing; repacking finished stock costs labour and risks damage. For retail programmes the same applies to pallet height, overhang tolerance and labelling, which is covered alongside the structural detail on thepeg-ready carton page.

Delivering to a co-packer or third-party filler

This is common and works well, provided their intake requirements reach us in advance.

• Their receiving hours, and whether deliveries need a booked appointment.
• Their purchase order or reference number, which usually has to appear on the paperwork and often on each case.
• Case labelling requirements, including any barcode or SKU format they expect.
• Maximum pallet height and weight they can handle.
• Whether they need a packing list inside the consignment as well as attached to it.

A refused delivery at a co-packer is expensive and slow to resolve. Ten minutes gathering their requirements before we ship avoids nearly all of it.

Damage, shortages and what to do

Rare, but worth knowing the process before you need it.

1. Check the consignment on arrival against the packing list, before the driver leaves if possible.
2. Note any visible damage on the delivery paperwork. A signature without a notation makes a carrier claim considerably harder.
3. Photograph the packaging as received, including the outer case and the pallet, not only the damaged goods.
4. Contact us within a reasonable period with the photographs and the delivery reference, and we will work through it with the carrier.

Custom-manufactured packaging is made to your approved specification and cannot be resold, so returns for change of mind are not available. That position, and how manufacturing faults are handled, is set out in theterms and conditions.

Storing packaging once it arrives

Board and label stock both change with storage conditions, and a few precautions protect the investment.

• Keep pallets off concrete floors and away from external walls, since board absorbs moisture.
• Store flat cartons flat and banded rather than loose, so they do not bow.
• Case hang tab cartons upright, so tabs are not crushed under load.
• Keep label rolls cool and out of sunlight; heat causes adhesive ooze at the edges.
• Do not stack rigid boxes deeply, because assembled boxes mark each other under pressure.
• Keep paper tubes cool, as they are more heat-sensitive than plastic containers.

If you would rather not warehouse a full run at once, a scheduled call-off holds the volume price while releasing stock against a delivery schedule. That arrangement is described on thebulk programme page.