Choosing a snack pack format for retail or horeca is not a packaging decision, it is a channel decision made early and then very hard to reverse. The size you commit to sets your shelf price, your freight cost per kilo of product, the minimum order you have to fund, and whether a category buyer will even take the meeting. Importers who get this wrong usually do not discover it at the port. They discover it four months later, when the 185 g family packs they bought are sitting in a grab-and-go chiller cabinet priced like a meal deal item, or when a hotel group asks for 500 single-serve pieces and the only stock available is in family bags.
This article works through the three channels an imported cracker realistically sells into, what each one demands from the pack, and the arithmetic that decides whether the format you want is economic to ship. The figures used are for our own two standard formats, but the method transfers to any dry snack you are quoting.
What each channel actually demands
Grocery retail
Supermarkets and organic or free-from specialists buy on shelf economics. They want a pack that holds its own facing, carries a legible ingredient panel and allergen statement in the local language, and delivers a margin at a price the shopper accepts for the category. For crackers that usually means a share-size or family bag: enough weight that the unit price looks reasonable, enough front panel to carry brand and claims. Our 185 g family pack (18 x 26 x 6 cm) sits in that band. Free-from buyers in particular want the gluten-free statement large and unambiguous, which needs panel area a small pack cannot give you.
Horeca and foodservice
Hotels, airlines, caterers and cafés buy differently. They are either buying a sealed single portion to hand a guest, or they are buying bulk to decant. The portion piece has to be small, robust, and cheap enough per unit that it can be given away with a coffee. The bulk piece wants the opposite: the largest sealed unit that keeps product integrity, minimum packaging per kilo, and no retail artwork at all. Note the honest point here: most small manufacturers, including us, hold two retail formats as standard. A true foodservice bulk pack of several hundred grams to a kilo is an OEM item, not something you can pull off a stock list. That is doable, but it is a project with tooling, artwork and a first-run commitment, not a sample order.
Impulse
Convenience stores, petrol forecourts, kiosks and vending want a single-serve that can be eaten in one sitting and hit a round price point. Our 50 g single-serve (60 g gross per pack) is built for this. Impulse is also where pack durability matters most, because the product is handled repeatedly and displayed in clip strips or open baskets rather than on a tidy shelf.
The carton maths, and why it decides more than you think
Both of our formats ship in the same 43 x 34 x 30 cm carton. That single fact is the key to the economics, because freight is bought by volume or weight per carton, not per pack.
| 185 g family pack | 50 g single-serve | |
|---|---|---|
| Packs per carton | 20 | 45 |
| Net weight per carton | 3.70 kg | 2.25 kg |
| Gross weight per carton | 5.05 kg | 3.40 kg |
| Carton size | 43 x 34 x 30 cm (identical) | |
| Cartons per 20ft | 784 | |
| Cartons per 40ft | 1,568 | |
| Packs per 20ft | 15,680 | 35,280 |
| Packs per 40ft | 31,360 | 70,560 |
Two things follow. First, a 20ft container of family packs carries roughly 2,900 kg of product; the same container of single-serve carries about 1,760 kg. The freight bill is the same. So your ocean freight cost per kilo of edible product is around 60 per cent higher on the single-serve. That does not make single-serve wrong, but it has to be recovered somewhere, and impulse pricing is the least forgiving place to try.
Second, packaging cost per kilo moves the same way. Forty-five small film pouches use considerably more film per kilo of cracker than twenty large ones. If you are building a landed cost model, put a separate line in for it rather than assuming price scales with weight. More on container and loading detail is set out on our export terms page.
Landed cost per unit: the sanity check
Before committing to a format, build the model per selling unit, not per kilogram. The line items are the same in every market:
- Ex-works or FOB price per pack
- Ocean freight and THC, divided by packs per container (or per carton for LCL)
- Duty, calculated on your HS classification and origin
- Local clearance, inland haulage and warehousing
- Labelling or relabelling, if artwork is not printed for your market
- Distributor and retailer margin
Run it twice, once for each format, and compare the retail price each implies. In most markets the family pack survives the model comfortably and the single-serve is tight unless the retail price point is generous or the channel tolerates a premium. If the single-serve only works at an unrealistic shelf price, that is your answer, and it is better found on a spreadsheet than in a warehouse.
Should you launch with one format or two?
Two formats double your SKU count, your artwork cost, your registration paperwork in markets that require it, and your risk of one line ageing out while the other sells. With a 12-month shelf life from production, a slow second SKU will show up on your stock report before it becomes a write-off, but it still ties up cash.
The pragmatic sequence for a first import is: pick the single format that matches your strongest channel, prove sell-through, then add the second. Our trial minimum is 100 kg net, which is about 27 cartons of 185 g or 45 cartons of 50 g, and a trial can be split across variants so you can test flavour preference and pack format at the same time without committing to a container. Of the nine variants, four are also sugar free, which matters if your lead channel is a free-from retailer rather than impulse; the full specification list is on the product page.
When a custom format is worth commissioning
Beyond our two standard sizes, pack format is open at OEM level along with seasoning strength, sweetness and flavour profile. Custom sizes make sense when:
- Your channel has a fixed portion standard, such as an airline or hotel amenity spec
- A round local price point sits awkwardly between 50 g and 185 g
- You need a bulk foodservice pack with no retail artwork
- A multipack outer is what the retailer actually lists, rather than the individual bag
They make less sense on a first order, because a new size changes carton fit, cartons per container and often the film specification, so the carton maths above has to be recalculated before you can quote anything. If you are weighing this up, the sequencing is described on our private label page. Whichever format you land on, the certification package behind it is the same — HACCP, BPOM and Halal, with copies sent alongside the first quotation.
A short honest note
Elfath Averania is a Purbalingga manufacturer that grew out of a home kitchen in 2017 and now supplies over 100 resellers across Indonesia alongside its first export shipments. We hold two retail formats as standard and can develop others, but a buyer who needs a large ready-made catalogue of pack sizes shipping this month is better served by a larger factory. If you want to work through the format and landed cost arithmetic for your own market before committing, the export desk will run the carton and container numbers with you.
Frequently asked questions
Which snack pack format is cheaper to ship, family packs or single-serve?
Family packs, measured per kilo of product. Both of our formats use the same 43 x 34 x 30 cm carton, but the 185 g pack gives 3.70 kg net per carton against 2.25 kg for the 50 g pack. Since freight is charged per carton, the effective ocean freight cost per kilo of product is roughly 60 per cent higher on single-serve.
Can I order a custom pack size instead of the standard formats?
Yes. Pack sizes beyond the standard 185 g and 50 g are available as OEM projects, alongside packaging design and recipe adaptation such as seasoning strength and sweetness. A new size changes carton fit and cartons per container, so the loading figures and quotation have to be recalculated for that specification before an order can be confirmed.
What is the minimum order if I want to test two pack formats?
Trial orders start at 100 kg net, which is about 27 cartons of the 185 g family pack or 45 cartons of the 50 g single-serve. A trial can be split across formats and across the nine variants, so it is possible to test both pack sizes and several flavours in one shipment rather than committing to a full container.