Minimum order
When a supplier writes “MOQ: 200”, that is not a minimum. It is a bundle — bottle, pump, cap, box, label and juice — quoted as though all six begin in the same place. They do not. Each one starts where its own process allows, and the gap between them is where a first order usually breaks.
Below is every floor we work to, in public, with the process that holds each one there. Nothing is revealed at the end of a conversation.
The floors
| Component or process | Floor | What the floor is stuck on |
|---|---|---|
| Finished goods on reference components | 1–5 pieces | Nothing is tooled. Stock components, a printed label, and the sample run itself. |
| Stock bottle, standard pump, hand-filled | 100 pieces | Changeover and a clean run on the filling line. The bottle has no floor of its own — we hold the shapes in stock. |
| Screen print, fired-ceramic decoration or a dedicated rigid box | 500 pieces | Make-ready waste at the head of every decoration run. |
| Private-mould cap or closure | 1,000–1,500 pieces | Tooling divided across the run. The range moves with the complexity of the closure, not with a policy. |
| Dedicated box, insert and assembly as one set | 500–2,000 pieces | Structure, insert and hand-assembly counted together, because they are made together. |
Read the third column rather than the second. A floor is not a negotiating position — it is the point below which the process stops being repeatable.
Why
The filling line is stopped, cleaned, purged and restarted between runs. That cost is fixed per run, so it is divided by the number of units. At 100 units it is bearable. At 20 it is most of the price, and no supplier will hand you a number that looks like that.
A print or coating run burns the first units finding register, opacity and cure. That waste is identical whether you order 500 or 5,000. Below 500 the waste per unit overtakes the ink.
A mould is a fixed cost. Divide it by 1,000 units and it is a line item. Divide it by 100 and it is the whole quotation. This is the only reason a private-mould cap sits higher than a stock one — the cap is not more expensive, the tool is.
A supplier quoting a single figure is not concealing anything. They are quoting the most expensive item in the bundle and letting it speak for the rest. Two suppliers can both say “200 pieces” and mean opposite things: one is quoting a stock bottle and a label, the other is quoting a stock bottle plus a mould they intend to cut regardless.
Quotation
Perfume and filling are quoted as one line. Packaging is quoted as another. That is a structural choice, not a formatting one.
Split this way, you can approve the juice at one volume and the packaging at another. A stock bottle with a dedicated box is a valid structure. A private-mould cap on a stock bottle is also valid. Bundled, you cannot see which half is driving the cost, or which half you could defer until the scent has proven itself.
No price is published on this site. Quotations are issued after the brief is read, and they carry the quantity, the packaging level and the timing on the same page.
Before we quote
Most quotations in this category are written before anyone confirms that the parts fit together. That is why a bottle and a pump can be approved separately and still fail as a unit.
You get one of three answers in writing, item by item: workable as specified, workable with a substitution, or not workable. The note is written so you can forward it to your own packaging contact without translating it.
First orders
Stock bottle, standard pump, digital label. No tooling, one bottle family. This is the order that confirms the scent on a filled unit and puts something physical in front of a buyer.
Stock bottle with one decoration step, or a dedicated box. One packaging decision is made and the other is deferred. The juice and the shelf presence are tested at the same time as the packaging budget.
Private-mould cap plus a dedicated box. The tool is only worth cutting once the direction has survived a smaller run, and this is the first volume where it is.
You are not required to walk this as a ladder. A first order can start at 1,000 pieces on a stock bottle with a private-mould cap, if the direction is already settled elsewhere.
Questions
It is the point at which a hand-filled run on a stock bottle is repeatable. Below it we run finished-goods trials of one to five pieces instead, which is a different process with a different purpose, not a discount on the larger one.
Yes, and it is the usual path. The cap is a separate tool with its own floor. The neck finish is fixed on the first order, so the later cap has to be designed against that neck rather than chosen freely. Tell us at the start if a private closure is likely, and we will confirm the neck will take one.
Because the two halves have different floors and different tooling. One line forces the higher floor onto the lower half, which is how a 100-piece order turns into a 500-piece quote for no reason you can see.
Send the drawing or the physical dimensions and we will say whether it can be run. A bottle you already hold does not need to be re-moulded, but its neck still has to match a pump we can supply, and that is checked before anything is quoted.
We do not hold stock for same-week dispatch, we do not sell single units to consumers, and we do not quote against a photograph. A brief with a reference image and no dimensions gets a question back, not a price.
Next
First reply within 24 business hours. The feasibility note and the two-line quotation follow in about five business days, against the same brief.