Maybe you have planned to start a F&B business. After comparing different options like glass, HDPE and PET, you have decided that PET plastic bottles might be cheaper and more suitable for your business. So next you should be on the lookout for any local PET plastic bottles manufacturer with good price so that you can control your packaging costs.
With the convenience of internet, you easily located a few local manufacturer and visited their website. You found that, there are so many options! Clear and transparent or colored plastic bottles, different sizes and shapes, numerous type of enclosures to choose from, and they even have different weights of bottles. Which one should you choose? How to know if you bought the right plastic bottles for your business? You wouldn't want to risk spoiling your brand's image when you just started by selling products with faulty packaging.
In this guide, we listed a few factors that affects the quality of PET plastic bottles. If you don't mind using plastic bottles that feel flimsy, buy plastic bottles that weight less than 15g. If you want to make sure your product delivered to buyer without any leakage or damage, use plastic bottles with heaviest weight. You can find out how you should choose the ideal plastic bottles at the best price range for your business here.
1. Purpose
The purpose here is to decide if you are selling your products, or you are looking to advertise. For selling purpose, you would want to make sure that you deliver quality products to buyers with good packaging. Whereas if you are advertising, you want to achieve maximum impressions by spending minimum cost. Also there are cases where you are sponsoring to a certain events or conference. No matter what, you will need a proper packaging for your products so that you will make impressions for everyone who used your products.
Normally, if you are preparing your products for sale, you would want to make sure your packaging is the best. By using thick and durable plastic bottles, you will be able to ensure that the products will not get damaged during transportation. For advertising purposes, the plastic bottles must have unique design to catch eyes. Since its going to be free, smaller size/volume would be recommended because they serve as test samples. As for the sponsored events or conferences, it is better to use lighter and thinner water bottles because it will be easier to clean up. Of course, they are cheaper as well. That way you can advertise your products on sponsored events at minimum cost.
2. Volume or size of PET plastic bottles
For F&B business, it is important to have a few different sizes and volume to accommodate the customer's preferences. Some like them big because they want to enjoy in a big party; some like it small because they are alone and don't want to be wasteful. Either way, having a few different sizes of drinks for your customers always serve its purpose. So how do you know which volume you should use for your drinks and beverages?
Generally, 250ml to 350ml should be the best size for single customer. For a couple or duo, 500ml should be ideal. As for a big party or family, 1.5L is the best. Depending on the type of drinks you are selling, the size and volume required varies. We can't be offering 1.5L of Espresso because its not the norm for people to share coffee by pouring out of a big bottle. Also it is not recommended to offer 120ml of orange juice because it won't be enough, unless it is concentrated juice.
The strategy used by the F&B giants can be referred accordingly. On majority supermarkets, you can find the drinks and beverages packed using plastic bottles are in the size of 500ml or 1.5L+0.25L (brilliant marketing strategy). So let's say if you are selling drinks at a small venue, 250ml or 500ml is recommended because they are convenient to hold and drink. If you are selling beverages to be put on the rack, 500ml and 1.5L is the best options for buyers to decide whether they want it large or small. Roadside stalls are recommended to focus on 250ml and 500ml as they are easier to transport and showcase on limited space. Events or conferences often offer beverages at 250ml and 500ml only as well to discourage over drinking to avoid visiting the toilet too often. Home delivery of Soya or juices are suitable to be contained in 1.5L since this is the most economic size.
Therefore, depending on the venue and type of drinks and beverages, it is important to use different packaging volume as they will affect your sales greatly. Having to hold 1.5L of Cincau when you are shopping is inconvenient. Not to mention delivering 250ml of grape juice door-to-door is super cost inefficient when you take the transportation cost into consideration.
3. Design of PET plastic bottles
Packaging is the face of your products. Every buyers are interested at products that have unique packaging. Top it off with eye catching labels and appearance, you should be able to create a lot of impressions and sales. In this case, PET plastic bottles is among the popular choice of packaging. Clear and transparent feature of PET plastic bottles allow beverages that have striking color to catch the eye of potential buyers. By making a mold, plastic bottles with unique design can be made as well. Such bottle will represent the identity of the product and they will be easily recognizable with proper marketing.
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| 250ml PET Plastic Bottle (Rectangle) | 250ml PET Plastic Bottle (Round) |
These days, micro and small F&B owners prefer PET plastic bottles with flat surfaces. This is because it has minimalistic feels and brings more focus towards the brand of the drinks and beverages. The non-flat plastic bottles are the choice of many as well because they are cheaper and looks different from what everyone is using. The main difference between the 2 types is the overall durability. We have shown 2 different types of 250ml PET plastic bottles on the figure above. The rectangle one is made with 15gram preform while the round and flat one is made with 24.5gram preform. The reason for using heavier preform for the round and flat bottle is because there are no structures to support the body of the bottle. If we were to use 15gram preform to make the round and flat 250ml plastic bottle, the bottle will feel very soft and flimsy. It will be dented easily. Of course, some people might not mind the dents and flimsiness because they want the design, not the hardness. In that case, 15gram preform can be used to make the round and flat 250ml bottles. However, for those who mind the hardness and strength of bottle, it is better to choose bottles with rings pattern because those rings and curves will be the one giving off structural support, allowing the plastic bottle to feel more durable even by using lighter preform.
4. Costs of PET plastic bottles
For business, the cost and profits are always the main focus. You want to produce and sell something with the lowest possible costs and highest profit margins. While it don't look much, PET plastic bottles actually can be more costly than you thought if not planned properly.
Majority cost of PET plastic bottles comprise of raw materials (preforms or PET flakes), electricity, water, maintenance and worker fees. Automated injection blow molding might costs less. Take all these fees, add in factory profits and that will be the factory price. Now, if you're in urgent needs, you will need to buy from a nearby shop, that obtained their stocks from a manufacturer. Then you will need to pay something like a commission or agent fees. If you do not have your own transportation, you will need courier to send the bottles to you. That will cost you delivery fees. As such, high quality bottles usually costs a lot more than you thought!
In order to cut the costs, it is recommended to buy in bulk, especially when you requires courier services. Loose lorry cargo charge flat rate for every pallet while normal courier services charge by weight or volumetric weight, whichever higher. The calculation of volumetric weight is:
Width (cm) x Length (cm) x Height (cm)/6000 = Volumetric weight
Plastic bottles are very light, but they consume a lot of space. For a carton of 500ml with 70pcs, the carton size goes up to 15kg in volumetric weight and 2kg in weight. By using normal courier, the shipping fees for 1 carton of 70pcs of 500ml, they are charging approximately RM40 per carton. Meanwhile, 1 pallet can fit about 3,000pcs of 500ml, and loose lorry cargo will charge somewhere between RM180 to RM300, depending on your location. Do the math and you should know which options would be cheaper in the long run.
5. Closures
Closures here means plastic caps. Manufacturers usually sell closures with plastic bottles together. Depending on the manufacturer, there should be a range of closures to choose from. If you decided that you do not need a closure, you can try to negotiate with the manufacturer for price reduction. Otherwise, you can requests for a certain type of closures if you have the volume.
6. Labels
Copyright - Jus Kunyit MBAK ANA (PVC Label)
Labels are the main thing to focus after you have selected the type of plastic bottles you want for your business. There are many type of labels: shrink labels, craft paper label, PVC labels and etc. If you are officially launching the products, it is best to use shrink labels because they are tear resistance and looks very good. However, they are quite expensive because there are minimum order for the shrink labels. If you are testing the market or you do not have the sales volume, PVC labels are more desirable. PVC labels are advantageous because they are cheaper with no minimum order quantity even though they won't look as nice as the shrink labels. Lastly, craft paper can be used if your products won't get wet from droplets or water. They are the cheapest option out of all. The only problem is they cannot get wet and they are not tear resistance.
7. Quality
PET plastic bottles are usually mass produced. As such, it is possible that you won't notice the difference if you met a manufacturer that decided to cheat by providing you slightly defected plastic bottles. You may discover unequal or unfinished jobs on the bottles, and you can't use them for business. Either way, it is important to find a manufacturer with good track record so that your business will not get affected by defected supplies.
8. Weight
The weight of the preform (the plastic tube before PET plastic bottles are formed) will determine the durability of the PET plastic bottles. For example, 25 gram preform will be more prone to harsh handling when compared to 15 gram preform. When the preform is heavier, the amount of plastic used is more. At a fixed volume, let's say 250ml, the 25 gram preform will produce 250ml PET plastic bottles with thicker wall, when compared to the 250ml PET plastic bottles made with 15 gram preform. While thicker plastic bottles sound good, not all vendors require such thickness. Some roadside beverage sellers don't need 25 gram plastic bottles since they do not need to outsource the handling. Of course, heavier preform means higher cost. As such, it is crucial to decide on the necessary weight of the preform so that the cost of your business are more reasonable.
Final Words
While you may be able to simply choose a plastic bottles that you can find online, you can actually plan your business strategy properly by discussing with local plastic bottles manufacturer for better brand building. This will allow you to have a great start in your business and you wouldn't need to worry about packaging for a few years before you make another big changes following the trends. With the right packaging and good marketing plan, your business will definitely thrive in the long run.