Printed and bespoke packaging comes in run quantities. Stockholding means you get the run-quantity price without filling your own unit with six months of board.
Packaging stockholding means WSUK holds your packaging stock in our Midlands warehousing and releases it to you in call-off quantities. It resolves a specific problem: printed and bespoke packaging is produced in economic run quantities, but almost nobody has the space to store a run. You buy the quantity that makes the price work, we hold it, and you call off what you need when you need it - or we pack with it directly if WSUK also handles your fulfilment. It also removes the lead time from a reorder, because the stock is already made. WSUK already operates warehouse storage, so this is existing capability applied to packaging.
Print and bespoke formats have a minimum run. Storing that run is somebody's problem - it does not have to be yours.
Order the run quantity that makes the unit price work, instead of a smaller uneconomic run or an awkward compromise on specification.
The stock sits in Midlands warehousing on racking that is already there, managed with stock records you can see.
Release in the quantities you actually consume, to your site or into our own pack benches if we run your fulfilment.
Most businesses solve the run-quantity problem by sacrificing one of the three. Stockholding is how you keep all three.
Agree, produce, hold, release.
Which lines, what run quantity, what call-off size, and the reorder point that triggers the next production run.
Stock is manufactured against the agreement, or your existing stock is transferred in if you already have a run sitting somewhere.
The stock is held in Midlands warehousing with stock levels visible, so you know what is left without counting pallets.
Released to your site in your quantities, or used directly at our pack benches if WSUK handles your fulfilment.
Stock sits in the Midlands Golden Triangle, which is why call-off to anywhere in the UK is a short, predictable journey rather than a logistics exercise.
Packaging stockholding is an arrangement where your packaging is bought in the quantity that makes commercial sense, held by WSUK, and released to you in the quantity you actually consume. It exists because of a structural awkwardness in how packaging is made. Anything printed or bespoke carries a setup - a print plate, a cutting form, a machine changeover - and that setup is spread across the run. Order a quarter of the run and the unit price does not fall by a quarter, it barely falls at all. So the economic order quantity for a printed carton or a bespoke insert is frequently several months of consumption, and several months of consumption of something as bulky and as low-value-per-cubic-metre as corrugated board is a serious amount of space. Businesses resolve this in one of three unsatisfactory ways. They order short runs and pay more per unit than they need to. They order the full run and lose warehouse or unit space that product should be occupying. Or they compromise the specification down to something available off the shelf. Stockholding removes the trade-off: the run is produced, held on racking in a business that stores goods for a living, and called off as required. Two further benefits tend to matter as much as the space. The first is lead time - because the stock already exists, a reorder is a delivery rather than a production cycle, which is the difference between a replenishment and a crisis when a line runs low. The second is peak: you can build stock ahead of a busy season and draw it down through the season, instead of trying to buy production capacity in the month everybody else wants it too. Reorder points are agreed against real consumption so the next run is triggered before the shelf is empty, and stock levels are visible so you are not relying on somebody counting pallets. If WSUK also runs your fulfilment, the packaging never has to move to you at all - it goes straight to the pack bench. For what to hold, see packaging supplies, custom printed packaging and bespoke packaging.
Specification first, then a quote against it.
Which lines, what run quantity, what call-off size, and the reorder point that triggers the next production run.
Stock is manufactured against the agreement, or your existing stock is transferred in if you already have a run sitting somewhere.
The stock is held in Midlands warehousing with stock levels visible, so you know what is left without counting pallets.
Released to your site in your quantities, or used directly at our pack benches if WSUK handles your fulfilment.
Everything you need to know about packaging stockholding at WSUK, answered plainly.
Because packaging is bulky and low value per cubic metre, which makes it the worst possible use of space you are paying for. If that space could hold sellable product instead, storing board in it is an expensive choice.
The point of it is the opposite - it lets you buy at the economic run quantity instead of ordering short, uneconomic runs because you have nowhere to put a full one. Holding has a cost; we will set it out so you can compare it against the unit price difference and the space.
The stock is already manufactured, so a call-off is a delivery rather than a production lead time. Tell us the responsiveness you need and we will agree the call-off terms around it.
Yes. If you already have a run sitting in a unit or a container, it can be transferred in rather than produced from scratch.
Yes - stock levels are visible and reorder points are agreed, so the next run is triggered before a line runs out rather than after somebody notices.
Yes, and that is the neatest version of this. If WSUK handles your fulfilment, the packaging never needs to travel to you at all.
It is one of the better reasons to do it. Build stock ahead of peak and draw it down through the season, instead of competing for production capacity in the busiest month of the year.
Anything with a run quantity or a lead time - printed cartons and mailers, printed tape, bespoke inserts, foam - and anything bulky enough that storing it yourself is genuinely costing you space.
It uses the same warehousing and the same stock discipline. The difference is that it is set up around packaging consumption and call-off rather than around product. See warehouse storage for the general service.
| What you get | WSUK | Typical packaging supplier |
|---|---|---|
| Run-quantity pricing without run-quantity storage | Yes | Rarely |
| Your own space stays available for sellable product | Yes | Rarely |
| Reorders are deliveries, not production lead times | Yes | Rarely |
| Reorder points agreed against real consumption | Yes | Rarely |
| Existing stock can be transferred in | Yes | Rarely |
| Can feed our pack bench directly if we run your fulfilment | Yes | Rarely |
Packaging Stockholding is supplied to businesses across the UK from the Midlands Golden Triangle. Pick a location for how supply works locally, or see the full list on the packaging services hub.
Tell us what you use and how fast you get through it, and we will set out what holding it would involve.