Asking the right questions upfront is the key to effective bundle wrapping, say those who offer the service. CPG company purchasing managers mulling external packaging options should ask the marketing department to specify its merchandising goals prior to discussing film options with a contract packager. Another good place to check before selecting the film is retailer stocking preferences and requirements.
"One of the drawbacks with contract packaging is that packaging can be an afterthought for some customers," says Hans Blom, vice president, sales and marketing, California Hi Lites. "So they’ll come to us at the last moment and not have thought about stuff. Quite often, we get people who say they’ve figured it all out. We ask them, ‘Have you thought about bundle wrap?’
"We tell them, if you do it the way you thought you wanted to go, stores might not want your products because they take up too much shelf space or they won’t be securely packaged," he adds.
When a CPG company chooses to bundle-wrap, some co-packers ask the company to procure the packaging film. The co-packers then provide a list of film vendors to their customers and advise them on which grade of film they should request and key qualities to look for in a vendor.
"We ask that they provide the film for us, because if we provide it, we take the risk, namely, is the customer going to be with us for a couple of months?" Blom says. "If not, they’ll leave us with film. And if we buy it, we’d have to mark it up."
