Ekaterina Skalatskaia
Most FMCG companies know what they pay for packaging material. Far fewer know what packaging really costs them.
The price per unit on a supplier invoice is only the visible part. Around it sits a layer of hidden costs: reprints, write-offs, rush fees, delays, duplicated work and over-specified materials. Each one looks small. Together they can quietly drain a large part of the packaging budget.
This article explains what packaging cost leaks are, where they usually appear in FMCG, and how to find and fix them. It is based on what we see in packaging projects at Collabra, where we have worked with brands on packaging strategy, design and production since 2003.
What Is a Packaging Cost Leak?
A packaging cost leak is any cost related to packaging that does not add value to the product, the brand or the customer, and that could be avoided with better planning, processes or specifications.
Cost leaks are different from normal packaging costs. Paying for material, print and design is necessary. Paying twice for the same artwork, or scrapping thousands of printed cartons because of one wrong ingredient, is a leak.
Cost leaks share three traits:
- They are spread out. They sit in different budgets: marketing, supply chain, procurement, quality.
- They are rarely tracked. Few companies report “cost of packaging errors” as one number.
- They repeat. Without a process change, the same leak happens again in the next project.
Why Packaging Cost Leaks Are Hard to See
Packaging touches many teams. Marketing owns the design, regulatory owns the text, procurement owns the supplier, and supply chain owns the stock. Each team sees only its own piece of the cost.
That is why a reprint caused by a late text change may show up as a supply chain cost, while the real cause sat in the approval process. Nobody sees the full picture, so nobody fixes the root cause.
In FMCG, this problem grows with scale. More SKUs, more markets, more retailers and faster launch cycles mean more places where cost can leak.
8 Common Packaging Cost Leaks in FMCG
1. Artwork Errors and Reprints
A wrong barcode, a missing allergen or an outdated legal text can mean destroying printed packaging and paying for a full reprint. The cost includes material, print, production downtime and sometimes a delayed launch.
Most artwork errors come from unclear ownership, manual copying of text between files, and too many versions in circulation.
2. Slow and Unclear Approval Processes
When approvals go back and forth by email, each round adds days. Delays push work to the last minute, which leads to rush fees, express shipping and more mistakes under time pressure.
Long approval cycles are rarely about one slow person. They are about unclear roles: who must approve what, and in which order.
3. SKU and Variant Complexity
Every new flavour, size, market or retailer-specific version adds artwork, plates, minimum order quantities and stock. Many FMCG portfolios carry variants that sell little but cost a lot to maintain.
A packaging-focused SKU review often shows that several variants could share one structure, one dieline or one artwork base.
4. Obsolete Packaging Stock and Write-Offs
When a design, regulation or recipe changes, old packaging stock often becomes worthless. Large minimum order quantities make this worse, because brands buy more than they will use before the next change.
Write-offs are one of the clearest cost leaks, but they are often booked far away from the decision that caused them.
5. Over-Specified Materials
Packaging is sometimes heavier, thicker or more complex than the product needs. This can come from old specifications that nobody has reviewed, or from a “better safe than sorry” approach during a launch.
Reviewing material specs can reduce cost and environmental impact at the same time, which also helps with PPWR and EPR requirements in the EU.
6. Duplicated Design and Adaptation Work
When the same design is adapted for many markets, sizes or formats, the same work is often done again and again. Agencies and internal teams rebuild files from scratch because the original assets are hard to find or not set up for reuse.
7. Fragmented Suppliers and Specifications
Using many printers and converters without shared specifications leads to colour differences, inconsistent quality and extra proofing rounds. Each supplier relationship also needs its own coordination time.
8. Late Regulatory Changes
New rules on labelling, recyclability or packaging fees often trigger urgent changes across a whole portfolio. In the EU, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will affect material choices, labelling and packaging design over the coming years. Brands that plan late pay more in rush changes and write-offs. Read more in our guide to [PPWR readiness].
How to Find Packaging Cost Leaks in Your Business
You cannot fix what you cannot see. A simple packaging cost leak audit helps you make hidden costs visible.
Start with these steps:
- List recent packaging incidents. Collect reprints, delays, write-offs and urgent changes from the last 12 months.
- Trace each one to its root cause. Was it a process issue, an unclear role, a data error or a late decision?
- Estimate the full cost. Include material, print, downtime, extra agency hours and lost sales, not only the invoice.
- Map your approval flow. Count the steps, people and average time from brief to print-ready file.
- Review your SKU and specification list. Look for low-volume variants and materials nobody has questioned in years.
- Check stock exposure. How much packaging stock would become obsolete if a regulation or design changed tomorrow?
The result is usually a short list of two or three leaks that cause most of the cost. Focus there first.
How to Stop Packaging Cost Leaks
Once you know where the leaks are, the fixes are usually practical rather than complex:
- Set clear ownership. Every artwork element, text and approval step should have one owner.
- Use one source of truth. Keep approved texts, assets and master artwork in one place instead of copying between files.
- Standardise where possible. Share structures, dielines and artwork templates across variants.
- Plan changes in batches. Combine regulatory, design and recipe updates to reduce reprints and write-offs.
- Right-size orders. Balance minimum order quantities against the risk of upcoming changes.
- Review specifications regularly. Question materials and formats that have not been reviewed for years.
- Track the cost of errors. Make packaging cost leaks a visible number that leadership can follow.
Digital workflow tools help, but only when the process behind them is clear. A platform cannot fix unclear roles on its own.
How Collabra Helps FMCG Brands Reduce Packaging Costs
Collabra is a packaging agency and consultancy based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Since 2003, we have helped FMCG brands bring structure to complex packaging operations.
When it comes to packaging cost leaks, we support brands with:
- Strategy: packaging cost audits, process mapping and portfolio reviews
- Design: artwork systems and templates built for reuse across variants and markets
- Production: artwork, prepress and approval management that reduces errors and reprints
- Technology: setting up efficient workflows on Cway or the other packaging platforms you already use
Talk to our team about where your packaging budget may be leaking.
