Most packaging quotes look cheaper than the project turns out to be, because the quote usually covers the unit price and nothing else. Below is the full cost structure we walk every new customer through, with the ranges we see in practice.
The six cost lines
| Cost line | Typical range | What actually drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Existing mould (no tooling) | US$0 | We hold 30,000+ ready-made moulds; you only pay for colour and decoration. |
| New mould / tooling | US$1,500 – 25,000+ | Cavitation count, part complexity, steel grade and expected lifetime shots. |
| Sampling | US$80 – 600 per round | Number of cavities, decoration sampling and courier speed. |
| Printing plates & screens | US$30 – 120 per colour | Silkscreen and hot-foil dies; offset plates cost more but last longer. |
| Unit price | US$0.18 – 4.50 | Material, weight, number of colours, closure type and order volume. |
| Freight & duties | 8 – 25% of goods value | Volume-to-weight ratio, Incoterm and destination market. |
Why the unit price moves more than you expect
- Resin and aluminium are commodities: the same jar can move 10–15% between quarters.
- Every additional print colour adds a plate, a pass and a rejection rate.
- A closure is often 30–40% of the pack cost — a pump costs several times a screw cap.
- Order volume changes the machine setup amortisation, which is why 5,000 and 50,000 pcs are not remotely the same unit price.
Three items buyers forget to budget
- Compatibility and stability testing (12 weeks is standard) before you can sign off the pack.
- Regulatory artwork: INCI list, responsible person address, batch coding and any market-specific symbols.
- The second production run — first orders often sell faster than forecast and re-runs at low volume cost more per unit.
How to bring the cost down without cheapening the pack
The fastest saving is to start from an existing mould and spend the money on decoration instead: a standard 50 ml glass jar with a custom spray colour, soft-touch coating and hot-foil logo reads as a bespoke pack at a fraction of a new-tooling price. The second is to standardise the neck finish across your line so you can buy one closure at higher volume. And the third is to let the factory see your target price early — we can usually propose an alternative material or wall thickness that hits it.
Send us your target unit price, volume and market and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable before you spend anything on sampling.