For UK carton and corrugated packaging makers
Faster quotes for carton and corrugated packaging makers
Packaging quotes are slow because the spec arrives in pieces: a size in the email, a board grade in a PDF, a photo of a sample. We build the step that puts those pieces together against your own board prices, tooling and rate tables and leaves a draft quote for your estimator to approve, and we’re measured on how fast your quotes go out.
Or send us one enquiry as it arrived, and see the draft it would become.
What packaging makers’ websites say
None of the 23 packaging makers we read says how fast it quotes.
0 of 23
packaging makers in our study say on their website how fast they will quote.
19 of 23
ask for quote requests through a form on their website.
87%
say nothing about how a customer should place an order.
6 of 80
make-to-order firms of any kind in our study state a quote turnaround.
From our October 2026 study of what 209 UK supplier websites, 23 of them packaging makers, tell customers. Read the research note.
The problem
“Roughly 260 by 175 by 330, double wall, our logo on two sides.”
Is that internal or external? Which flute? One colour or two, and on which panels? Is there a cutter for that size already, or is this new tooling? A corrugated enquiry raises the same questions every time, and someone has to ask them before anything is priced.
Carton enquiries add board grade, print process, coatings, windows and gluing. Some arrive as a photo of a sample. The estimator rebuilds the spec from scraps while the buyer waits, and the buyer may have asked two other makers too.
Comes in
Morning, need a price on a box for our new 6-bottle pack, roughly 260 x 175 x 330, double wall, our logo one colour on two sides. About 3,000 a month on call-off. Photo of the sample attached. Mark
Checked
- Regular slotted case (FEFCO 0201), double wall, from the photo
- One colour on two panels; logo artwork on file from his last job
- Costed at your 3,000 and 10,000 run lengths for the call-off
- “Roughly” 260 x 175 x 330: internal or external size?
- Six glass bottles: board grade for the load to confirm
Waits for your estimator
Draft quote · 2 run lengths · 1 question
Costed on BC flute from your board prices and machine rates, with the board grade marked for your technical team. Ready to send to Mark: internal or external size?
Illustration with invented data.
How it works
Step by step, from enquiry to approved quote.
- Enquiries from the inbox, the website form and your reps’ notes go into one queue, with photos and drawings attached.
- Each one is read for the spec: style, dimensions and whether they are internal or external, board or flute, print colours and coverage, coatings, quantity, call-off pattern and delivery.
- It is matched against your tooling and past jobs: a cutter you already hold for that size, the same pack quoted before, the customer’s usual board.
- Gaps and conflicts become questions for the customer, worded ready to send.
- A draft quote is costed from your board prices, machine rates and make-ready allowances, in your quote layout. New tooling is its own line.
- Your estimator or technical lead approves or changes it. Nothing reaches a customer before that.
- We record enquiry-to-quote time for every request and report it each month against today’s baseline.
What it connects to
It works from your own prices and tooling.
- Enquiries inbox
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, through access you grant and can withdraw.
- Rate tables
- Board prices, machine rates, make-ready and waste allowances, from the spreadsheet or estimating system your estimator uses today.
- Tooling list
- Cutters and print plates you already hold, so a repeat size isn’t charged for a new cutter.
- Past quotes and jobs
- So a repeat pack starts from what you charged last time, and from what the run really took.
- MIS or ERP
- If it accepts quotes from outside through an API or an import file, the approved quote goes in. If not, it is copied across, as now.
What it costs you today
Put your own numbers in first.
The quote desk calculator takes your enquiries a day, minutes per quote and the cost of an estimator’s hour, and shows hours a week and pounds a year. Add your win rate and average order value and it shows what a month of quotes turns into.
For example, 12 enquiries a day at 30 minutes each is 30 hours a week of estimator time, or £42,000 a year at £28 an hour. The larger cost is harder to see: the buyer who ordered from whoever quoted first.
Illustration with invented data.
What you get, in order
From a first call to quotes measured every month.
-
30 minutes
Call with you
What you make, how enquiries arrive, and where quotes wait.
-
1 hour
Session with your estimators
We watch real enquiries being priced. The same day you get a one-page verdict: the workflow, the KPI it moves, today’s baseline and a fixed price. Or a written no.
-
A fixed number of weeks
Build
Connected to your inbox, rate tables and tooling list. Your estimator approves every draft.
-
Every month
Run and report
We run it and report quote turnaround against the baseline. Stop at any report.
Nothing is subcontracted. If we don’t find anything worth doing, we’ll tell you and leave. Printing commercial work on the same site? See print estimating. For every make-to-order trade, see quote automation.
Questions
Questions packaging makers ask.
- Can it choose the board grade?
- For a repeat pack the draft carries the board you supplied last time. For a new load, choosing board stays with your estimator or technical team, and the draft flags it for them.
- We make cartons and corrugated. Does that matter?
- No. Each has its own rate tables and questions, and both can feed one queue. We start with whichever team’s quotes wait longest.
- How is new tooling handled?
- When no cutter you hold fits the size, the draft adds tooling as its own line from your tooling prices, so your estimator can check it and the customer sees it.
- Do we need a packaging MIS?
- No. If your estimator prices from a spreadsheet, we work from that spreadsheet. If you run an MIS or ERP, the approved quote goes into it the way it accepts work from outside, or is copied across as now.
- What does it cost?
- The build has a fixed price, written on the one-page verdict and valid for 30 days, then a monthly fee for running it. You can stop at any monthly report.
Contact
Thirty minutes about your packaging quotes.
Tell us what you make and how enquiries reach you. Or send us one quote request as it arrived, photo and all, and we’ll send back the draft it would become.
The Open Build. We’ll build one UK supplier a quote desk system, free and in public, measured on its own numbers. Everyone who applies gets a one-page read of their own workflow. Applications close at 5pm UK time on Friday 6 November. See the Open Build.