Wolf&Grayson EditorialFor procurement teams, packaging isn’t just a line item on a purchase order. The box or mailer has to protect the product, move efficiently through fulfillment networks, support the brand experience, and arrive consistently despite changing material costs and unpredictable supply conditions. Yet supplier comparisons often begin and end with the price per unit.
A lower quote may look attractive until freight, minimum order requirements, lead times, damage rates, and supply disruptions begin to erode the savings. For Jeremy D. Bower, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Givr Packaging, the more important question is whether a supplier is truly operating as a partner.
“A partner is somebody who wants the best for you even if it’s not the best for them,” Bower says. That standard changes how brands should approach packaging procurement. Instead of evaluating a supplier solely on price and production capacity, companies need to examine how a packaging partner thinks, communicates, and manages the risks sitting behind the box.
The Packaging Partner Test Goes Beyond the Quote
A genuine packaging partner is willing to tell a customer when the supplier itself is not the right fit. That may mean acknowledging a production constraint, recommending another manufacturer or finding a way to source the requirement elsewhere.
“We can’t supply it. Now, what I would do is say, ‘Hey, we can go get this for you and supply it along with what we can supply.’” The willingness to prioritize the customer’s outcome over an immediate sale is a powerful supplier evaluation criterion.
The same principle becomes even more important when something goes wrong. When lead times slip or production problems emerge, transparency becomes a test of the relationship. A supplier that explains what happened, acknowledges its role, and communicates consistently during a disruption demonstrates that the customer is more than an account number.
Look Behind the Box at the Costs That Drive It
Packaging procurement often scrutinizes the finished price without examining the inputs that determine it. Bower believes procurement teams should ask how suppliers manage paper, freight, electricity, and labor costs before those variables become a problem. That means asking what freight is indexed against, how labor increases are calculated, and how linerboard costs are connected to the finished box. “You have to have some negotiating power to push back on that,” he says.
This additional layer of scrutiny can reveal hidden costs in a packaging quote and help brands understand their total cost of packaging ownership. It also gives procurement teams a better basis for evaluating whether a price increase reflects genuine market pressure or weaknesses in the supplier’s own cost management.
The same thinking applies further upstream. Just as packaging suppliers should understand what their customer’s customer needs, procurement teams should understand who supplies the materials and services behind their packaging supplier. That visibility can become critical when markets tighten.
Treat Sustainability and Uncertainty as Operational Issues
Sustainability requirements are adding another dimension to supplier evaluation, but Bower cautions against treating rapidly changing regulations as something any supplier can claim to have completely mastered. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements and other packaging rules are evolving quickly. In that environment, transparency matters more than certainty. “If anybody tells you they’re an expert in it, they’re lying,” Bower says. The stronger approach is to identify potential scenarios, communicate what each could mean for the customer, and establish mitigation plans before problems materialize.
For brands pursuing sustainable packaging, that means asking practical questions rather than accepting broad environmental claims. How is impact measured? What changes in materials or production? What happens if regulations shift? Sustainability becomes more meaningful when it is connected to measurable operational decisions rather than treated as a marketing label.
Capacity, Technology and Resilience Will Separate Suppliers
The next packaging disruption may not come from the traditional constraints watched most closely by procurement teams. Bower points to specialty gluing as one emerging bottleneck, particularly as demand grows for packaging formats using autobottoms and other specialized structures.
Digital printing is another capability that could reshape supplier evaluation. Its relatively small share of U.S. packaging production leaves significant room for adoption, particularly where shorter runs and greater flexibility can change the economics of custom packaging. For growing brands, understanding where digital print fits, how suppliers manage their input costs, and how automation supports production could become increasingly important.
The broader lesson is that supplier evaluation should include a forward-looking assessment of capability. Brands need to know not only whether a packaging partner can meet today’s order, but whether it is investing in the equipment, automation, and production capacity needed to support tomorrow’s requirements.
The Cheapest Box Is Not Always the Lowest-Cost Option
Packaging sits at the intersection of product protection, procurement, logistics, and sustainability. A decision that saves a few cents on the unit price can create larger costs through freight inefficiency, damaged products, inflexible minimums, or supply interruptions.
That makes the right packaging partner less about finding the lowest quote and more about understanding the economics and risks surrounding it. “My job is to stay in front of every single one of these things and communicate that to our customers,” Bower says.
For procurement leaders, that mindset offers a useful framework: evaluate the supplier’s transparency, understand its cost structure, test its operational resilience and assess whether its capabilities are moving in the same direction as the brand’s needs. The box may be the product being purchased, but the partnership determines how much that box ultimately costs.
