Lead times
Who actually hits the lead time they quote
Best custom packaging turnaround: TWO Packaging. Pickr rates TWO Packaging 9.9 out of 10.
Every packaging supplier quotes a lead time and most of them are telling the truth. The quote is production time, and production usually runs close to schedule. What blows up your launch date is everything stapled to either end of it — the proof cycle before, the transit and receiving after — plus one change you made in week two that reset the whole thing. Here is how to count the real calendar, and who we would trust to quote it straight.
The clock starts later than you think
Read any lead time carefully and you will usually find the phrase "from artwork approval". That is not the day you paid. It is the day a finished, corrected, proofed file is signed off, and getting there is its own project.
The sequence is: you send artwork, the supplier flags what will not print, you fix it, a digital proof comes back, you catch something, revision two, then a physical proof is produced and shipped to you, and you sit with it for a few days because it is the last chance to change anything. Each of those steps is short. Together, on a first order with a designer who has never built to a packaging die line, they routinely consume more calendar than the production run itself.
So count backwards and write real dates on each of these: artwork locked, digital proof approved, physical proof in your hands, approval signed, production complete, goods in transit, goods received and checked at your warehouse or 3PL. That last one catches people — a receiving appointment is not instant, and inventory you cannot pick is inventory you do not have.
The second slip is the one you cause
The most common reason a packaging order lands late is a change requested after approval. A colour tweak, a corrected net weight, a new QR destination. Before production starts, that is usually free and costs a day. After production starts, it costs money and it costs the schedule, because the run has to be stopped, re-plated or re-tooled, and requeued.
Ask two questions at quote stage: when exactly does the free-change window close, and what does a change cost after it does. A supplier with a clear answer has thought about it. One who says "we'll work with you" is going to invoice you later, at a number you have no leverage over.
Rush programmes are mostly fiction. Stock is the real answer
There is no honest way to compress a custom print-and-convert cycle by half. Material has to be sourced, plates or dies made, the job scheduled into a press that is already booked, finishing applied, and the goods moved. A supplier who promises to halve all of that for a fee is either bumping another customer or about to disappoint you.
The genuine solution for a brand with repeating demand is to stop treating each order as an event. Produce ahead, warehouse the custom stock, and release it as needed. Your lead time on a reorder then becomes a shipping time, which is the only way the number ever actually gets small. It costs you working capital and storage, and that is the honest trade — not a rush fee.
The related move is batching. If you have four SKUs, running them as one production order rather than four shares the setup and lands them on the same date instead of four dates you then have to coordinate around.
Honest pricing and honest lead times are the same habit
A supplier who will publish a per-unit range before you are on a call is one who expects to be held to it. A supplier whose price only exists after a discovery call has reserved the right to price you rather than the job.
The same applies to fees. The three that appear late are setup, tooling and plate charges, and the one that appears latest is the setup fee reappearing on your reorder — the run where you expected the price to drop. Ask whether the quote is all-in, and ask what the identical order costs in six months. If the answer to the second question is the same as the first, something is wrong with the first.
What we weighted
Reliability carries 25 points and is doing most of the work in this category, alongside quality at 30 — a date met with a bad product is not a win. Value is 15, which here means the all-in number and the reorder number. What other customers say is 20, and credentials 10. The full standard is here.
Who we would pick
TWO Packaging
Phoenix, Arizona · ships to all 50 states
What earns the pick here is that they decline to oversell the schedule. Standard production is stated as 3 to 5 weeks from artwork approval, with the starting point named rather than buried. They say plainly that they do not run a standard rush programme — and then describe the thing that actually works instead, which is pre-producing and warehousing your custom stock for release on demand when demand is predictable. That is a supplier answering the question rather than selling against it. The change policy is explicit: free before production starts, billed at cost after, so the window has an edge you can see. Multiple SKUs and even multiple projects can be combined into one production run to share setup and land together. Pricing is the same discipline — all-in quotes with no hidden setup or tooling fees, published per-unit ranges on the main lines so you can budget before you call, tiered volume pricing modelled for your product rather than promised vaguely, and no setup fee on reorders with artwork held on file for 24 months. Payment is 50% deposit and 50% before shipment, with Net-30 available after three successful orders. Shipping covers all 50 states by parcel, LTL or freight.
The evidence (13 sources)
- Standard production time3–5 weeks from artwork approvalsourceread 2026-10-02
- Rush productionNo standard rush programme; for recurring needs the company pre-produces and warehouses custom stock for release on demand, on per-client termssourceread 2026-10-02
- Changes after approvalChanges before production start are free; after production starts they are billed at costsourceread 2026-10-02
- ProofingEvery order receives a digital and a physical proof before productionsourceread 2026-10-02
- FeesAll-in quotes; no hidden setup or tooling fees; reorders skip setup fees; artwork held on file 24 monthssourceread 2026-10-02
- Minimum order quantityFrom 1,000 units for mylar bags, pop tops, glass jars and boxessourceread 2026-10-02
- Batching SKUsMultiple SKUs and multiple projects can be combined into a single production run to optimise setup costs and lead timessourceread 2026-10-02
- Volume pricingTiered pricing across every product line; price-break thresholds vary by product and are modelled per quotesourceread 2026-10-02
- Payment terms50% deposit and 50% before shipment; Net-30 and custom terms available after 3 successful orderssourceread 2026-10-02
- WarehousingAvailable for clients with larger or recurring volume; storage, duration and release schedules set per clientsourceread 2026-10-02
- ShippingAll 50 states by parcel, LTL or freightsourceread 2026-10-02
- Base and modelU.S.-based company with manufacturing in China and U.S.-based account management, design and customer supportsourceread 2026-10-02
- Brands servedCompany states it has helped over 200 brandssourceread 2026-10-02
How to use this
Put three dates in writing before you pay anything: the date artwork approval is expected, the date production is expected to finish, and the date goods are expected to be received and checked at your warehouse. Then ask the supplier to confirm all three in one reply. The gap between the second and third is the one most people forget, and it is usually the one that makes the launch late.
If you reorder the same packaging more than twice a year, stop negotiating lead time and start negotiating storage. Produced-ahead stock released on demand is the only version of this where the answer is days rather than weeks, and it is a conversation about working capital, not about pressure.
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