A bottle of spirits weighs about 1.5 kg, is breakable, and is bought almost entirely on how it looks in the box. That combination makes this the most demanding category we run: the structure has to be genuinely load-bearing, and the finish has to be immaculate because the customer will hold it at eye level.
The failures that show up again and again in this category — and where most of the engineering effort actually goes.
A bottle in a box with a flat base and nothing at the shoulder will pivot on impact and crack at the neck. The cradle has to hold the body and restrain the shoulder — which is why a moulded pulp or EVA cavity beats a cardboard ring for anything above 700 ml.
Pulp reads sustainable and quiet; EVA reads luxury and can be flocked to match the wrap. Both work — but they change the box depth by 10–15 mm, so the decision has to be made before the dieline, not after.
Deep navy or black wraps are unforgiving: a 0.2 mm foil misregistration or a particle under the wrap is visible from a metre away. We run dark stock on the sheet-fed press with a dedicated cleaning pass and inspect against a light table.
A gifting programme has a delivery date set by a calendar, not by production. Hand-assembled rigid boxes with foil and inserts need eight to ten weeks, and December programmes should be in tooling by September.
Treat these as anchors, not limits. Everything is adjustable; the point is to show what the budget buys at each level so the first conversation is about substance, not about price alone.
Retail single-bottle cartons. Recyclable in one stream.
The gifting default — solid, quiet, sustainable story intact.
Limited editions, two-bottle sets, press kits.
Alcohol packaging carries labelling obligations and, in gifting, an unusually high expectation of physical perfection.
| Requirement | What it demands | How we handle it |
|---|---|---|
| EU 1169/2011 (where applicable) | Allergen and ingredient information for alcoholic drinks | Text panel reserved on the back or base; wording supplied by you |
| Health warning marks | Market-specific warning text and symbols | Panel area planned at dieline stage; artwork proofed against your market list |
| ISTA 1A | Single-bottle parcels must survive handling | Cradle tested with the filled bottle, not an empty one — weight distribution changes the result |
| EU PPWR (from 2030) | Recyclability and reduction targets | Pulp cradles quoted as the default; EVA declared as a mixed-material exception |
Alcohol regulations differ sharply by market. We reserve panel space and print what you approve; the compliance wording itself must come from your regulatory team.
Pulp below roughly 1 kg total, EVA above — not because pulp cannot hold the weight, but because the wall thickness needed starts eating interior space and the box becomes oversized for shelf and shipping.
Yes. We cut the cavity layout around the actual glassware dimensions and leave a finger notch so the pieces lift out without being tipped. Send the physical items or accurate drawings; catalogues are usually 2–3 mm off.
Tooling and artwork approved by early September, production in October, ship by early November. Hand-assembly with foil and inserts is the constraint — press capacity in November is not the problem, labour is.
Send the product, the quantity and any compliance requirement you are working to. You will get a structure proposal and a cost band, not a brochure.