How to Request a Plastic Packaging Quote: The 14-Item Brief
Fourteen lines turn an enquiry into a quotable project. An incomplete brief is the single most expensive thing in a packaging order, because every missing line comes back as a revision, a second sample round or a tooling change.
Send the fourteen items and you get one quote instead of four
Product type, material, capacity, neck size, closure, colour, decoration, quantity, application, formula, mould requirement, target market, sample requirement and artwork. Fourteen lines. Most enquiries contain five of them.
Every missing line has to be filled in by somebody, and it is filled in either by us making an assumption or by you answering a question later. An assumption produces a quote for a different object; a question produces a delay. The brief removes both.
This is the quotation guide. If you are still deciding what to buy, start with capacity, neck size or stock versus custom mould first, then come back here.
The fourteen items, and why each one changes the number
Each item below moves at least one line of the quotation. Read the third column and it becomes clear why an enquiry without them can only produce a range rather than a price.
| Item | What to tell us | Why it changes the quote |
|---|---|---|
| Product type | Bottle, jar, dropper, pump bottle, sprayer, trigger, or just a closure. | Decides which mould family and which production route is quoted. |
| Material | PET, HDPE, PE, PETG, PP, or PCR (recycled) content target. | Sets the resin route, the clarity and the heat ceiling — and the unit cost band. |
| Capacity | The fill volume the label will claim, in ml or oz. | Pet resin is bought by weight, so capacity and weight drive the price more than anything else. |
| Neck size | The finish code — 18/415, 20/410, 24/410, 28/410, 28/415, or custom. | Determines which closures and dispensers can be fitted, and whether a stock cavity works. |
| Closure | Cap, disc-top, lotion pump, foam pump, mist or trigger sprayer, dropper, or your own closure. | The neck and the closure are one assembly, so the closure decides the neck, not the other way round. |
| Color | Pantone reference, masterbatch sample, or transparent / solid / pearl finish. | Custom colour is a masterbatch decision and moves the minimum order quantity. |
| Decoration | Silk screen, hot stamp, label, spray coating, pad print, shrink sleeve, or unprinted. | Sets up print tooling, adds a line pass, and changes both the unit price and the schedule. |
| Quantity | First order, expected annual volume, and whether it is a trial or a roll-out. | Quantity decides whether a stock mould, a modified stock mould or a private tool is the right answer. |
| Application | What the pack holds and how the user dispenses it. | Viscosity and dose per use decide the neck, the dispenser and often the capacity. |
| Formula | The product chemistry, alcohol or solvent content, pH, and fill temperature. | Compatibility, hot-fill limits and the material choice all follow from the formula. |
| Mold requirement | Stock mould, modified stock mould, private mould, or “advise me”. | Tooling is quoted separately from the unit price, so this line explains what you are paying for. |
| Target market | Destination country and the market it will be sold in. | Decides which documents travel with the shipment — food-contact, migration, recycled content, labelling. |
| Sample requirement | Physical pre-production sample, 3D render, colour chip, or none. | Sampling from an existing mould typically runs 3–10 days; a new tool is a longer programme. |
| Artwork / drawing | A dimensioned drawing, a 3D file, your artwork files, or a reference bottle. | A dimensioned drawing or a physical sample removes the assumptions that make quotes differ. |
- ▸Product type, capacity and material — without these three there is no object to quote.
- ▸Quantity — this decides whether the answer is a stock mould, a modified stock mould or a private tool, and those three price differently.
- ▸Neck finish or the closure — the neck decides whether a stock cavity can be used at all.
- ▸Decoration — a printed bottle is a different line pass from a plain one, even at the same quantity.
- ▸Destination market — it decides which documents travel with the shipment, and those are prepared before the container is loaded rather than after.
What an incomplete brief actually costs
The cost of a missing line is not the delay in answering one question. It is the rework that the question triggers, and rework in packaging is measured in samples and tools rather than in emails.
| Missing line | What goes wrong | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Material or formula | The quoted resin is not compatible with the fill, and the sample fails on compatibility rather than on geometry. | A second sample round, and sometimes a material change that re-opens the tooling decision. |
| Capacity or fill height | The bottle is moulded to a volume that does not match the label claim or the filling line. | A mould change, or a label change if the capacity is the flexible side. |
| Neck finish | A closure is chosen against a diameter while the thread differs, and the assembly leaks. | A neck change after the tool exists, which means reworking the cavity. |
| Quantity | The quote assumes a volume that does not exist, and the route is wrong from the start. | A re-quote on a different route, and a tooling decision reopened. |
| Decoration detail | Print tooling and the setup pass are not priced, and the print position is agreed late. | A print tooling charge and a setup pass appearing after the unit price was accepted. |
| Destination market | Documents are prepared for the wrong market, or not prepared at all. | A customs delay, which costs far more than the document itself. |
| Artwork or drawing | The factory interprets the shape, and the interpretation becomes the tool. | A sample that is dimensionally wrong, and a tool correction. |
None of these is hypothetical. They are the standard rework loops in packaging, and every one of them starts with a line that was left open in the enquiry.
The brief in one page — copy this into your enquiry
This is the same fourteen items written as a form. Copy it, fill what you can, and mark the rest open. A project with four open items is normal; a project that assumes them is where the cost comes from.
Copy-paste quotation brief
- ☐Product type — bottle, jar, dropper bottle, pump bottle, sprayer, trigger, or a closure on its own.
- ☐Material — PET, HDPE, PE, PETG, PP, or a PCR content target.
- ☐Capacity — the fill volume the label will claim, in ml or oz.
- ☐Neck size — the finish code, for example 24/410, or the closure you intend to fit.
- ☐Closure — cap, disc-top, lotion pump, foam pump, mist or trigger sprayer, dropper, or your own component.
- ☐Colour — Pantone reference, masterbatch sample, or transparent / solid / pearl.
- ☐Decoration — silk screen, hot stamp, label, spray coating, pad print, shrink sleeve, or unprinted.
- ☐Artwork or drawing — a dimensioned drawing, a 3D file, your artwork files, or a reference bottle.
- ☐Quantity — first order, expected annual volume, and whether it is a trial or a roll-out.
- ☐Mold requirement — stock mould, modified stock mould, private mould, or advise me.
- ☐Sample requirement — physical pre-production sample, 3D render, colour chip, or none.
- ☐Application — what the pack holds and how the user dispenses it.
- ☐Formula — chemistry, alcohol or solvent content, pH and fill temperature.
- ☐Target market — destination country and where it will be sold.
What happens after you send it
The first reply is either a price or one precise question. It is never a request for the whole brief again, because the brief is already in hand.
An export engineer reads the brief
Not a sales queue and not a chatbot. The brief is read against the mould library and the material range rather than against a price list.
Checked against 2,000+ existing moulds
The closest stock cavities are identified first, because a stock mould carries no tooling charge and runs at MOQ from 5,000 pieces. Where nothing is close, that is stated plainly.
One reply: a price, or one precise question
Where the brief is complete, the reply is a quotation. Where one line is missing and it changes the answer, the reply is that one question rather than a list.
NDA and drawings, where needed
We sign a mutual NDA before receiving technical drawings, artwork or formulation details. A private mould built for a programme is not offered to other buyers.
Sampling and approval
Sampling from an existing mould typically runs 3–10 days from a confirmed brief. Nothing enters mass production until a physical sample has been approved for shape, colour, finish and print.
Production and documents
The run is held against the approved sample and the colour chip. Export paperwork, the QC report per lot and any product-specific test reports travel with the shipment.
What a complete quotation contains
A quotation is only comparable if it states what it covers. This is what ours contains, and it is the list to check on any quotation you receive from anyone.
Lines a quotation should state
Two quotes for the same bottle can differ by a third and both can be honest, because they are not quoting the same object. The full anatomy of that gap is worked through in why two quotes differ by 30%.
Why the number moves, and what to fix before you compare
A quotation is a snapshot of variables that keep moving. Knowing which ones move is what lets you compare two quotes and plan a reorder.
The variables that move a price after the quote
- ▸Resin markets. Resin is bought by weight, and grades move independently of the bottle.
- ▸Exchange rates, where the quote is issued in one currency and the costs sit in another.
- ▸Quantity. A change in the order quantity can change the cavity count, the route and therefore the unit cost.
- ▸Colour and decoration. A colour change after approval restarts a round, and a print change can change the setup pass.
- ▸Packing and carton dimensions. A carton change alters the freight calculation as well as the packing price.
The practical answer is to fix three things in writing at the quotation stage: the validity period, whether the price holds for the reorder and for how long, and what happens if the quantity changes after the sample is approved. Why bottle quotes expire covers the mechanism in more detail.
What we will not quote blind
Three things are refused on purpose, because answering them quickly would mean answering them loosely.
- ▸A price from a photograph alone. Send clear images and we will measure what can be measured, but estimating from a photo is an estimate, not a promise, and every dimension is confirmed against a physical sample or a signed drawing before tooling starts.
- ▸A certification claim we cannot produce. ISO 9001:2015 is the certification we hold. Test reports, material declarations, recycled-content records and market-compliance files are documents, not certifications, and we label them that way. Where your market requires a certification we do not hold, we will say so at quotation stage rather than after the order is placed.
- ▸Duty, tariff or import advice. We prepare the export documents and the commercial invoice. Duty rates and import clearance in your market are handled by your customs broker, and we do not advise on them.
Send the brief and we will reply within one business day
- ▸Product type, material and capacity.
- ▸Neck finish code, or the closure you intend to fit.
- ▸Quantity — first order and expected annual volume.
- ▸Decoration and colour, or an explicit unprinted.
- ▸Destination country and the market it will be sold in.
- ▸Any drawing, artwork, 3D file or reference bottle you hold.
- ▸Any deadline you are working to, so the schedule is quoted against it.
A real engineer answers. Your enquiry reaches an export sales engineer who reads the brief, checks it against the 2,000+ mould library and replies with either a price or one precise question — no ticket queue and no chatbot loop.
Quotation, sampling and cost reading
Requesting a quotation: buyer questions
How do I request a quote for plastic packaging?+
Send fourteen items: product type, material, capacity, neck size, closure, colour, decoration, quantity, application, formula, mould requirement, target market, sample requirement and artwork. Where some are open, send the rest and mark them open — a project with four open items is normal.
How much detail do you need to give a price?+
Seven lines are enough to price most stock-mould projects accurately: product type, capacity, material, neck finish or the closure you intend to use, quantity, decoration and destination market. The remaining items refine the price and the schedule rather than making it possible.
Why do you need to know my formula?+
Compatibility, hot-fill limits and the material choice all follow from the formula. Alcohol and solvent content, pH and fill temperature decide whether the resin proposed is the right one, and a sample that fails on compatibility costs a second round rather than a conversation.
Does an incomplete brief cost me anything?+
Yes, though not in the price of the packaging. A missing line produces either an assumption that turns into a revision, or a question that arrives after sampling has started. Both end as a second sample round, a tool change or a re-quote — which is where the real cost sits.
How fast will I get a reply?+
A real engineer answers, typically within one business day. The first reply is either a price or one precise question, and it is never a request for the whole brief again.
Do you sign an NDA before I share drawings?+
Yes. We sign a mutual NDA before receiving drawings, artwork or formulation details, and a private mould built for your programme is not resold or reused for another customer.
What will the quotation include?+
Unit price and what it covers, tooling quoted separately, decoration and closure lines, packing, MOQ, the sampling cost and schedule, the Incoterm and the quote validity period. If a line is missing, ask where it will appear later rather than assuming it is free.
Can you quote from a photo or a competitor bottle?+
Send clear images or, better, a physical sample. We measure the capacity, neck finish and weight, check the closest match against the 2,000+ existing moulds and tell you whether a stock mould covers it or whether new tooling is needed. Estimating from a photo is an estimate, not a promise.
Request a quote
Send the brief you have — even the partial one. An export engineer reads it, checks it against the 2,000+ existing moulds and replies with either a price or one precise question.