What is a copacker and what are the advantages to using a copacker?

Article Submitted By: Food Trade Consultants

Copackers specialize in manufacturing and packaging foods meant to be sold by other companies with such products ranging from popular brands to small private labels. Entrepreneurs solicit their services for a number of reasons; for starters, copackers offer entrepreneurs a wide range of services besides manufacture and packaging, which also helps their clients to formulate their product line.

Other than manufacturing and packaging other people’s merchandise, copackers may be in the market with their own line of products or they may even be manufacturing several of the competing products. The service that a copacker may render to any given company depends on the experience and size of the former and the manufacturing capacity of the plant.

Benefits of Contracting a Copacker

Copackers greatly reduce the startup expenses for food entrepreneurs considering that capital costs for facilities and equipment may be too much for an entrepreneur to cover. Hiring a copacker allows an entrepreneur to accurately foresee manufacture overhead costs, not to mention that it significantly reduces the time it takes to get the product to consumers.

By choosing a copacker with an established product line, an entrepreneur has the guarantee that their product will be manufactured, packaged, and labeled on time. Copackers who have been in the business for a long time usually have proper certifications, insurance, proper sources of financing for purchasing ingredients and supplies, contacts in the food industry and the means to complete the job efficiently.

Copackers are well versed with food safety and food quality parameters as well as the product shipping requirements. Copackers also have proper storage facilities where the finished products are kept after labeling prior to distribution in the market. Some copackers offer their clients other services such as product formulation assistance, nutritional labeling, stability testing, and ingredient substitution among other services.