What custom packaging actually means
Custom packaging is packaging engineered and printed for one specific product instead of pulled from a stock catalog. It covers folding cartons, custom printed boxes and mailers, food-safe packaging, blister packs and retail-ready displays, each built around what goes inside it.
MPress designs, prints, die cuts and finishes all of it at our New Orleans plant and at MPress West in McKinney, Texas. Because we also warehouse and ship, the same team that prints your box can store it and fulfill orders from it, which removes a handoff most packaging buyers end up managing themselves.
An Ipsos survey for the Paper and Packaging Board found that 72 percent of consumers say packaging design influences what they buy. The box is doing real work, so it is worth specifying properly.
Why packaging spend is growing
The folding carton market keeps expanding
Carton demand is what drives custom packaging volume, and it is forecast to keep climbing.
Sources: Fortune Business Insights; Ipsos for the Paper and Packaging Board (2,002 US adults, 2018).
What we print
Folding cartons
The classic printed retail box: single-layer paperboard, flat shipped, glued, and cut and scored to your exact product. Because the blank is cut to fit, the finished carton uses less void fill, ships more safely, and sits square on a shelf instead of bowing.
Structure is the first decision and the one that moves a quote most. A straight tuck end, a reverse tuck, an auto-bottom and a locking mailer are different engineering problems, and each needs its own die. After that it is board: caliper, coating, and whether the stock is bleached or kraft all change both the material cost and how the ink sits on it.
Printed boxes, mailers and retail displays
Corrugated shippers and e-commerce mailers printed with your brand and sized to the product, so nothing rattles in transit. A corrugated box has a fluted middle layer between two liners, which is what makes it strong enough to ship. Many products use both: a carton for the shelf and a shipper around it.
Point-of-sale displays are the same discipline applied to the sales floor. They ship flat as a die cut blank and assemble on site without a build crew, which keeps freight down and means a store associate can set one up in a couple of minutes.
Food-safe packaging and specialty cartons
Boxes, sleeves and cartons produced to meet food-contact requirements, which is a real consideration in a city built on food. Tell us what the package will hold, how long it needs to hold it, and whether it will be refrigerated or frozen, and we will specify board and coatings that suit it.
Specialty finishing is where a carton stops looking like a box. A die cut window turns the pack into a display for what is inside. Foil stamping, embossing and soft-touch or spot coatings add a tactile cue that photographs badly and sells well, which is exactly why premium categories keep using them.
Blister packs, tags and horticultural printing
Clear formed shells that display and protect a product on a peg, backed with a printed card sized to your planogram. We also print horticultural tags and pot stakes on weather-tolerant stock, because they live outdoors in sprinklers and sun. Tags for plants? Yep, we print those. WHIZ!
Send us the product and the quantity you are considering and we will quote it both ways where it is close. Request a quote or call (504) 524-8248.
What drives the price
- Structure. A straight tuck carton and a locking mailer with an insert are different engineering problems, and the die is different too.
- Board stock. Caliper, coating, and bleached versus kraft change the material cost and how the ink sits.
- Print method and finishing. Offset, digital and UV suit different run lengths. Foil, embossing and specialty coatings price on top of the base print.
- Quantity. Packaging is tooling-heavy, so the die and setup spread across the run. Two boxes of the same size can price very differently once quantity is factored in.
How a packaging job runs
1. Send us the product or the spec. Tell us what goes in the box. If artwork is ready you can upload a file and we will work from that.
2. Structural design and engineering. We design the package around the item, keeping cost under control while protecting what is inside.
3. Proof and approval. You approve before anything runs. Our prepress team catches the problems that would otherwise show up on press.
4. Print, die cut and finish. We print, die cut, foil and glue in house, then finish through bindery and finishing.
5. Warehouse and ship. We hold the run and release it as you need it through fulfillment and warehousing.
