Packaging · Manufacturing
Cost every packaging job from the board, film and make-ready it consumed
A packaging converter quotes per thousand units and loses margin to make-ready waste, short runs and artwork changes. We cost each job from the substrate it consumed, the cylinders or plates it needed and the waste it generated. Pricing then reflects the run length the customer actually orders.
In one paragraph
Corrugated box makers, folding-carton and label printers and flexible-packaging converters run many small, printed, customer-specific jobs. Most turn over ₹10–300 crore and supply FMCG, pharmaceutical, food and e-commerce customers. Each job has its own artwork, tooling and waste. Stock becomes worthless the day the customer changes its design. The managing director or finance head usually leads the work.
Managing director or finance head
The economics
How the money moves in this trade
Kraft paper, board, film, inks and adhesives make up most of the cost, and paper and polymer prices move with their own markets. Every printed job needs cylinders, plates or dies. Every run wastes material while the machine is set up and colours are matched. A long run spreads that make-ready over many units and a short run does not. Yet both are often quoted at a similar rate per thousand.
Brand-owner customers set long payment terms, ask for stock to be held against their call-offs and change artwork at short notice. Printed stock and printed substrate for an old design can only be scrapped. Flexible and multilayer packaging also brings extended producer responsibility considerations for the customer. It can bring them for the converter too, depending on its role.
The problem
Where the numbers usually break down
Make-ready waste is averaged
Set-up waste is spread over all jobs at a fixed percentage, so short runs look more profitable than they are.
Cylinder and plate cost is not recovered
Cylinders, plates and dies are expensed when bought, and recovery from the customer is inconsistent or forgotten on repeat orders.
Obsolete printed stock is never provided for
Finished and semi-finished stock for superseded artwork sits in the warehouse at full value until someone writes it off.
Substrate price moves are not passed on
Paper or film price increases are absorbed on running orders because there is no record of the price each quotation assumed.
Stock held for customers ties up cash
Buffer stock held against call-offs is not tracked by customer, so the working capital each brand consumes is unknown.
What we do
The work, and the result each part produces
Job costing by run length
Substrate, ink, adhesive, make-ready waste, running waste and machine time recorded per job and compared with the quotation.
Short runs are priced for what they cost.
Cylinder, plate and die register
Each item of print tooling recorded with its cost, customer, artwork version and recovery status.
Tooling is recovered and not paid for twice.
Artwork-linked stock control
Printed stock tagged to its artwork version, with exposure reported when a customer announces a change.
Obsolescence is negotiated before the stock is made worthless.
Substrate price tracking against quotations
The paper or film price each quotation assumed recorded and compared with current purchase prices.
Price revision requests are based on evidence.
Customer working-capital view
Receivables, held stock and tooling by customer, set against their payment terms.
The true cost of serving each brand owner is visible.
EPR data support
Quantities and material types supplied to each customer recorded in the form their or your obligations require.
Customers' data requests are answered from the books.
Where we start
The first steps of an engagement
Job tickets and tooling invoices
We ask for job tickets with make-ready and running waste, substrate purchase records, cylinder, plate and die invoices, quotations for recent jobs and the stock list by artwork.
Short runs against long runs
Quoted and actual cost are compared for a sample of short and long runs, with make-ready waste separated from running waste.
A print tooling register
Cylinders, plates and dies are recorded with their customer, artwork version and recovery status, and printed stock is tagged to its artwork.
A job cost and stock-risk report
The first report shows quoted against actual cost by job and run length, and lists printed stock exposed to artwork changes by customer.
How it is measured
The reports the work is judged on
Each is recorded as a baseline before the work starts, so later reports have an honest comparison.
- Quoted versus actual cost, by job
- Make-ready waste by machine and run length
- Print tooling recovered against spent
- Obsolete and at-risk printed stock
- Substrate price assumed against paid
- Working capital by customer
Who it suits
Written for, and not the right fit for
- You mould or extrude rigid plastic containers rather than print and convert — our plastics processing page is the closer fit.
- You need EPR registration or returns filed with the regulator — that filing is your own responsibility, and we prepare the data for it.
- Corrugated box, folding-carton, label and flexible-packaging converters.
- Converters serving FMCG, pharmaceutical, food or e-commerce brand owners.
- Plants where job numbers have grown but job-level costing has not.
Services
Services this work draws on
Costing and profitability
What each product, line and customer really contributes.
Explore service ↗Outsourced accounting
Your books kept current and reconciled, closed to a published calendar.
Explore service ↗MIS and financial planning
Reporting built around the questions you actually need answered.
Explore service ↗Internal controls and risk
Controls sized to your business, documented and actually tested.
Explore service ↗Every other service, also available in this trade
Common questions
Questions owners in this trade ask
How should packaging converters price short runs?
By separating make-ready cost from running cost. Once set-up time and waste are known per machine, the quote becomes a fixed set-up charge plus a rate per thousand, and short runs stop subsidising themselves from long ones.
Can a converter claim obsolete printed stock from the customer?
We can show the stock tied to each artwork version and when it was made against the customer's call-off. Whether it can be claimed depends on your agreement, but the claim is much stronger with that record.
Does EPR apply to us or to our customers?
It depends on your role for each product. The rules distinguish producers, importers and brand owners, and since 2024 the definitions also reach makers of plastic raw material and of intermediate material used in packaging. That classification is for you and your adviser; we keep the quantity records any of those roles needs.
5th Quadrant performs costing, accounting and reporting. Registration, returns and certificates under extended producer responsibility rules are the client's own responsibility with the regulator; we prepare the underlying data and support. Statutory audit and prescribed certifications are signed by an independently engaged licensed professional. Full detail is on our Professional Scope page.
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