BESPOKE FOLDING CARTONS — MADE IN STOCKPORT

Bespoke cartons, made simple.

Bespoke folding cartons in any size, any board, any finish. Designed, printed, finished, and glued under one roof at our 40,000 sq ft Stockport factory — no outsourced stages, no extra hops.

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Folding cartons, made in Stockport.

Every carton we make is bespoke — drawn from a brief, sized to your product, printed on the board you specify, finished to the spec on the artwork. There’s no off-the-shelf range and no minimum-style menu. What there is: a B1 5-colour press with in-line UV coating, a Bobst die-cutting line, three folder/gluers, and a structural design team — all in the same building. One supplier. Every stage. One quote.

01Bespoke from a blank sheet — no off-the-shelf range, no preset moulds.
02Every stage in one factory — design, print, die-cut, fold, glue, despatch.
03B1 5-colour press with in-line UV coating — premium finishes without lead-time penalty.

A USER’S GUIDE

Choose your carton style.

A reference of the structural styles we routinely produce — tuck-ends, crash-locks, sleeves, trays, pillow packs, and more. Hover any card for the detail; if your spec sits outside this set, ask — bespoke is the default.

Reverse tuck-end glued carton

The top flap hinges from the front panel and tucks into the rear; the bottom flap hinges from the rear and tucks into the front. Ideal for displaying luxury items — gives a more finished look on shelf and frees the designer's hand. Also suited to food, medical, pharmaceutical, retail, and toy boxes. Dividers, false floors, and content supports can all be folded in.

Opposite tuck-end glued carton

Top and bottom flaps fold from the rear and tuck into the front (reversible if required). Ideal for cartons with a front window — cosmetics, confectionery, retail, and toy boxes. Dividers and supports can be added to hold contents in place.

Tuck-end box with hanging tab

For small, lightweight products and ideal for point-of-sale display on a hanger. Can be made with a small window to show the contents.

Skillet

Usually erected, filled, and sealed by automatic packing equipment. Often used for food, retail, and medical packaging.

Crash-lock base carton

Supplied flat-packed and pops open — easily erected by hand. Once opened, the base locks into place and won't close again, making it suitable for all types of packaging and ideal for products that need a sturdier carton.

Envelope base carton

A cheaper alternative to a crash-lock base. Supplied flat-packed and opened up by hand — better suited to lighter products.

Sleeve

Frequently used as a cover over a tray. A low-cost packaging solution that lets the product be viewed from the sides or top and bottom. Wide range of uses across sectors.

Tent-shaped carton with crash-lock base

Easily constructed and filled by hand — ideal for customers without automatic equipment. Often used for confectionery and other shelf displays.

Roll-end tray

Suitable for hand construction with no gluing required. Self-locking tabs make this a robust, sturdy package — especially when paired with a lid.

Shirt box with lid

As the name suggests, used for shirts. Sides are glued and the box ships flat for the customer to erect. Comes with a connected or separate lid. Wide range of uses — files, paper, food. Fitments can be added to support the contents.

Buffer-wall tray

Used for high-quality products or ones needing extra protection or support. The box is supplied glued but still requires some hand construction.

Pillow pack

Ships flat and pre-glued — easily made up. Their unusual shape suits jewellery, cosmetics, or other luxury and craft items.

Counter-display unit (sloping or straight sided)

Display boxes can be specified with straight or sloping sides — designed to suit the product and to hold a number of individual units. Ships flat for retailer assembly; once the lid is folded back, the unit doubles as an attractive advertising display.

Food sleeves — sloping or straight sided

Used in the food industry for holding plastic containers. Slotted to hold the lids in place, with an aperture for applying a best-before date.

How to measure your carton

When supplying carton dimensions, please give them in this order: Length (L), Width (W), Height (H) — as shown on the diagram.

END-TO-END, IN-HOUSE

Under one roof.

Every Cartons Made Simple job moves through four production stages without leaving the building. Structural design sets the cutter-die. The B1 press lays down ink and coating in a single pass. Bobst die-cutting and finishing take the printed sheets to formed blanks. The folder/gluers ship them ready to fill.

[ Cardboard Engineering ]

Cardboard Engineering

Bespoke structural design — cutter-die layouts drawn to your product spec.

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[ Printing ]

Printing

B1 5-colour litho with in-line UV coating and accelerated drying.

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[ Finishing ]

Finishing

Bobst die cutting, in-line embossing, hand finishing for intricate work.

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[ Folder Gluer ]

Folder Gluer

Three folder/gluer machines — short-run bespoke through high-volume retail.

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From our floor.

A cross-section of recent carton jobs — shapes, finishes, and sectors. Every example was designed, printed, finished, and glued at the Stockport factory.

Carton job 2 placeholder — replace, e.g. soft-touch laminated personal-care carton

Carton job 3 placeholder — replace, e.g. pharma carton with high-gloss UV lacquer

Carton job 4 placeholder — replace, e.g. foodstuffs carton printed on recycled board

Carton job 5 placeholder — replace, e.g. hexagonal gift carton with metallic ink

Carton job 6 placeholder — replace, e.g. automotive parts carton with bespoke locking base

The production journey.

01

Brief

Share specs, dimensions, board, finish, and quantity. We come back with a quote and a sample timeline.

02

Sample

Structural mockup or printed proof, depending on the job. Sign-off before we go to plate.

03

Production

Print, finish, glue, pack. Despatched on the agreed date — every job tracked from press to dock.

Typical lead time: [TBC — X working days from approved artwork to despatch].

Common questions.

What carton sizes can you produce?

Our press runs B1 sheets — 700×1000mm — which sets the largest carton blank we can hold colour across in a single piece. Below that, we routinely produce everything from small cosmetics cartons to large retail giftware boxes. Bespoke is the default — share your dimensions and we’ll quote.

What boards do you print on?

[TBC — typical board weight range and substrate types, e.g. coated and uncoated boards from 200–600gsm including FBB, SBS, GC1, GC2, and recycled grades.] Material chain-of-custody is FSC-certified through to despatch. If you have a specific board in mind, we’ll print to it.

Do you handle structural design, or do I need to supply a cutter-die?

We handle structural design in-house — that’s our Cardboard Engineering capability. CAD-drawn cutter-die layouts, white-board mockups, sample iterations until the structure works for your product. Supply us a cutter-die if you have one; otherwise, we draw from a brief.

What's your minimum order quantity for a bespoke carton?

[TBC — typical short-run minimum, e.g. 250–500 cartons for a sampled job, with no upper limit on the high-volume side.] We schedule short-run bespoke jobs alongside larger retail orders, so a small minimum doesn’t push you to the back of the queue.

How long does a typical job take from approved artwork to despatch?

Most jobs move from approved artwork to plate within [X] working days, with print, finish, and gluing scheduled on a timeline we share with each quote. End-to-end production in one factory removes the supply-chain hops that add days to a typical lead time.

Ready to elevate your product’s shelf presence?

Send us a brief, an artwork file, or just dimensions and a board in mind. We’ll come back with a quote, a sample timeline, and a press slot.

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0161 480 1234