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Custom Case Study
Custom Compostable Produce Bags for a UK Distributor
A UK produce business approached us for a custom compostable bag-on-roll solution for fruit and vegetable packaging.
The customer needed a transparent compostable bag with custom black printing, a relatively heavy-duty 25-micron film, and a large roll format suitable for regular dispensing.
Rather than using a standard stock specification, the project required us to coordinate the bag dimensions, roll weight, paper core, carton packing and international delivery as one complete packaging solution.
Customer Requirements
The confirmed specification was:
- Bag size: (250 + 112.5 × 2) × 450 mm
- Expanded width: 475 mm
- Thickness: 25 micron
- Material: Transparent compostable material
- Printing: Custom black printing
- Bags per roll: 250 bags
- Carton packing: 6 rolls per carton
- Order volume: Approximately 500 kg
- Market: United Kingdom
The customer did not require a special paper-core design. Their main concern was that the finished roll should remain compact, strong and suitable for smooth dispensing.
Export Carton Design
With 250 bags on each roll and a 25-micron film thickness, each finished roll is substantially heavier than a typical small consumer roll.
For this reason, the roll construction and paper core needed to support the finished roll weight without excessive deformation during packing, transport or dispensing.
We therefore selected a standard reinforced paper-core configuration suitable for the roll size and winding weight.
The finished roll was designed around:
- approximately 250 mm roll width
- approximately 130 mm finished roll diameter
- 250 bags per roll
This configuration provided a practical balance between bag capacity, roll compactness and dispensing performance.
Order Quantity Planning
Based on the confirmed bag dimensions, thickness and material weight, the 500 kg production quantity was calculated at approximately:
- 156 production rolls
- 39,000 bags
- 26 full export cartons
A small additional quantity was also prepared during production, bringing the final shipment quantity to approximately 39,750 bags.
This type of calculation is important for custom compostable bag projects because MOQ is often based on production weight rather than a fixed number of finished rolls.
Export Carton Design
Each full carton contains:
- 6 rolls
- 1,500 bags per carton
The rolls are arranged in a compact 3 × 2 configuration.
The selected export carton size was approximately:
410 × 280 × 270 mm
Plain export cartons were used without custom outer-carton printing.
This kept the secondary packaging simple while allowing the heavy rolls to remain stable during palletization and international transport.
Pallet and Shipping Planning
The full order was consolidated onto one pallet for delivery to the United Kingdom.
Approximate shipment configuration:
- 27 export cartons
- 1 pallet
- Pallet size: approximately 1200 × 1000 × 960 mm
- Gross weight: approximately 550 kg
- Palletized volume: approximately 1.15 CBM
The project was arranged on a DDP delivery basis so that the customer could receive the goods at their UK destination without coordinating the international freight process separately.
What This Project Required
This project was not simply a matter of producing a bag to a given size.
Film thickness and bag weight
A 25-micron film significantly increases the weight of a 250-bag roll, which affects winding, paper-core strength, carton design and freight.
Roll diameter and dispensing
The number of bags per roll had to remain practical for the customer’s dispensing application while keeping the roll compact.
Carton optimization
The export carton needed to accommodate six heavy rolls without excessive empty space or unnecessary shipping volume.
MOQ conversion
The production MOQ was specified by material weight, so the final roll and bag quantities had to be calculated from the actual finished bag weight.
DDP logistics
The finished packing configuration also needed to work efficiently for palletized international delivery to the UK.
Final Configuration
39,000+
bags shipped
27
pallet for the UK
1
bags shipped
The packed pallet measured approximately 1,200 × 1,000 × 960 mm, with a gross weight of about 550 kg and a volume of 1.15 m³. The 26 full cartons above were the production estimate. The final shipment comprised 27 cartons.
A Practical Custom Bag-on-Roll Solution
During recent production runs, I have observed that for large-format, roll-based bag products, specifications—such as film thickness, number of bags per roll, roll diameter, paper core strength, carton dimensions, and total shipping volume—often require adjustments based on actual production conditions and the specific length of the paper cores used.
Consequently, before commencing production, we conduct a thorough assessment of the roll-packaging configuration. This allows us to provide clients with practical, compostable produce bag solutions that not only meet their requirements regarding bag capacity and dispensing methods but also align with the operational demands of both manufacturing and export logistics.
Planning a similar produce bag roll?
Send us your bag dimensions, film thickness, bags per roll, print requirements, estimated quantity and delivery country. We can use those details to work out the roll size, carton count and freight volume.
