boxs for biffs missus

[biff]

my wife is into knitting,
                her work has travelled all over the world,scarfs,hats,coats, you name it. lately she has been asked to supply scarfs but in a presentation box and when we looked to see what was available online we were quite shocked to learn that the boxs were costing £2.50 a time in lots of 50.
     the boxs are "6 wide x "3 deep x "9 long with a transparent lid. has anyone any idea where we could source boxs in the uk at a more reasonable rate,? we might be lucky and someone out there could throw us a link,
          biff

[Ivan]

Packaging is one of the biggest rip-off industries there is. You need to go to a cardboard factory and ask them directly (you, and not your wife, otherwise they'll charge her more). Ask for 1000pcs. Anything less and you won't get a good price. Set-up costs are likely to be £250ish and the production run probably around £400-800 depending on the size/quality of the box.

Off-the-shelf boxes are much too expensive. You'd think that 'standard sizes' in mass production would be much cheaper.

I used to work in medical biochemistry - I was amazed when I discovered that the most expensive components in a cutting edge diagnostic kit were the 20ml plastic bottles, followed by the box/packaging, followed by the printed instructions then finally the biochemicals.