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What are the factors to consider when choosing a paper tube or folding carton

Paper Tubes or Folding Cartons? This is a headache that many brand owners and retailers may come across when deciding on a retail packaging box for the products.Like any other type of packaging, the basic functions of paper tubes and folding cartons are to house, protect and display the products. In lots of cases both packaging could be an alternative to the other.

Then how to choose between the two?It is of importance to get a clear picture of the possible benefits and costs of both types so that you can make a wise paper tube packaging decision that suits them best.Definitely the decisive factor when choosing a packaging is, first of all, the costs and the budget reserved for packaging. If you have a very limited packaging budget, then the decision may be much easier to be made as folding cartons are usually much cheaper if simply looking at the unit cost.

1. Set-up Costs

First of all, set-up cost. Either paper tubes or folding cartons require tooling (or more exactly a set-up process including tooling, printing prep. work, production) for every single custom project. With tooling, the machines are designated to tailor the cardboard tubes or folding cartons to required specifications and measurements.

Normally set-up costs of paper tubes are more than that of folding cartons. So to get an equally desired competitive unit price, the order minimum of paper tubes could be much higher than that of folding cartons.

2. Unit Production Cost

Secondly, from a production perspective, folding cartons involve much more machines. The mass production process is now highly mechanized and few laborers are needed.
Paper tubes, however, require much more labor work and a longer lead time, which means the unit production cost of paperboard tubes is much expensive.

3. Shipping Costs

Thirdly, shipping costs. In this day and age, astronomical shipping rates are the pain for both manufacturing and retail sectors due to the Covid-19 pandemic across the world.
In this regard, folding cartons far outperform paper tubes. This is because folding cartons could be packed and shipped in flat while paper tubes are spirally wound to be kind of “set-up”, which would occupy much more space in shipping, either by air, by sea, or by land (in a truck). The skyrocketing shipping costs could easily blow away the entire project.