Co-packaging services, also known as contract packaging, increase the manufacturing flexibility and efficiency of your business by outsourcing the intermediate and/or final packaging processes of your products.
As companies evolve to meet the changing face of retail and eCommerce, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse is there with the resources, equipment, and expertise to meet your unique packaging needs. Whether you are marketing food products, health, and beauty aids, household products, pharmaceuticals, or other goods, we have the experience and assets to streamline your secondary packaging processes.
Over the past two decades, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse’s co-packaging services have grown by 10-15 percent year over year. With the benefits of outsourcing seasonal, labor-intensive, and space-consuming operations, more companies are looking for experienced partners. A co-packaging partnership offers a wealth of advantages to our clients, from seamless scalability and more internal manufacturing flexibility to lower costs.
Why Use Co-Packing Services?
Why incorporate co-packaging into your supply chain? With contract packaging, you have the ability to stay competitive in the retail marketplace by offering more packaging solutions and creating customization for each retail nameplate without capital and operating expenses. Here are a few advantages:
Cost Savings
Co-packaging offers professional packaging without tying up capital, equipment, line space, and management infrastructure.
Flexible and Agile Packing Solutions
You chose the best packaging application for the product.
Fast Turnaround
Contract co-packing operations already have the line space, labor, quality control, and management infrastructure in place
Focus on What Matters
Using a contract packaging company frees your resources to focus on product development and growing your business.
Co-Packaging Applications
A contract packager can help you deploy a wide range of packaging designs and configurations to accommodate many different needs. Examples include:
- Retail-ready packaging (e.g., club cases, PDQ trays, counter displays)
- Promotional packaging (e.g., end-cap displays, holiday/seasonal packaging, combined brands, sample packaging, overwrapping)
- White-label/private-label branding
- A/B testing (i.e., running two or more packaging versions to see what sells better)
- Store-specific or region-specific packaging
- Re-packaging from bulk
Co-Packaging Services
All of our co-packaging personnel adhere to stringent manufacturing practices and GMPs. A comprehensive Quality Management System is in place to ensure products meet the highest sanitation, safety, and quality control standards.
Atlanta Bonded Warehouse specializes in multiple co-packaging services, including:
Co-Packing for eCommerce
From kitting to bundling to sealing, our eCommerce co-packaging services ensure that your products are ready for either immediate shipment or retail sale.
Secondary Packaging, Re-Packaging, and Reconfiguration
Whether you are introducing new products, planning a promotional campaign, or need to rework damaged products, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse is prepared.
Our services include building half and full pallet displays, floor stands, power wings, SRPs, and counter displays; inserting/attaching promotional flyers or coupons; and managing customized consignee-specific projects. Our newest piece of equipment is a variable speed cartoner, which forms the carton for fulfillment, seals the carton, prints the “best by” codes, and checks the weight.
Our Co-Packaging Resources
Our co-packer team can staff up and leverage our internal resources to increase shifts and add lines. We are experienced with high-speed bagging lines, box or theater pack lines, overwrap lines, shoebox lines, and horizontal baggers. We use metal detection equipment, material flexible date code printers, case auto-tapers, and check weighers.
As a longtime logistics partner to some of the world’s most well-known food and snack brands, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse boasts decades of experience coordinating high-volume co-packaging programs for everyday or seasonal initiatives.
Contact us today to consult with one of our co-packaging experts to learn how you can benefit by integrating our contract packaging services into your supply chain.
Co-Packaging FAQs
- What is the difference between co-packaging and co-manufacturing?
Co-packaging, contract packaging, and co-manufacturing are three terms often confused.
What is co-packaging?
Co-packaging, short for “contract packaging,” encompasses two distinct applications in the food packaging process. Co-packaging can refer to taking a finished food item and putting it in its primary package – putting a candy bar in its wrapper, for example. Co-packaging can also include secondary packaging, where the wrapped candy bar is placed in a carton or case, or cartons/cases are packed into a built retail display.
What is co-manufacturing?
Co-manufacturing is the actual mixing, blending, baking, or cooking in the food production process. A co-manufacturer can be hired by another food processor looking for additional line capacity, a unique processing skill, or the necessary equipment for creating a finished product. Or a co-manufacturer can be engaged by a “virtual” food company that outsources all of its food processing. More often than not, the co-manufacturer puts the finished product into its primary package. However, there are situations where the “co-man” will ship the finished goods in bulk to a co-packager, who will put the product in its primary packaging.
Benefits of outsourced packaging
Outsourcing packaging needs to 3PLs or co-manufacturers gives food processors the flexibility to scale to meet demand. Food processors and CPG manufacturers frequently outsource their secondary packaging to contract packagers and some/all of their production to co-manufacturers if they don’t have the appropriate facilities, resources, and staffing to manage these operations in-house.
- Why should I use a co-packager?
Outsourced co-packaging services give processors and manufacturers more flexibility to prepare their products for retail shelves, display, or promotion. Third-party co-packagers have the flexibility to change lines from day to day or even shift to shift.
Co-packagers frequently utilize high-volume and high-speed equipment to bag, pack, wrap, or carton both “naked” products and products already in their primary package. These products are now ready for retail shipment or secondary packaging into SRPs, counter displays, powerwings, retail shippers, or quarter, half, or full pallet displays.
- Can I outsource my co-manufacturing to ABW?
Atlanta Bonded Warehouse offers our clients outsourced co-packaging (or contract packaging) services for secondary packaging or kitting. We do not provide solutions for our clients that include product manufacturing.
However, we do have the line capacity, labor, quality control, and management infrastructure in place to handle all your secondary packaging and kitting requirements.
Our co-packaging applications also include repackaging from bulk, retail-ready packaging, and promotional packaging into new packaging or configurations for product launches or promotional campaigns.