Private-label tea: packaging sizes, formats and how to launch your own brand

In a private-label arrangement the blend, the packing line and the food-safety registration belong to the supplier; the brand, the artwork and the market belong to you. The supplier’s name may appear as the packer in small print where the destination’s labelling law requires it, but the shelf sees your brand.

It suits importers who want a house brand with better margins, supermarket and convenience chains, café and restaurant groups that want a signature chai, and entrepreneurs building a brand for a diaspora community that misses a strong, Indian-style cup. Narsibapa Tea offers private label on enquiry alongside its own retail packs.

Choose the format around how your customer stores and uses tea, then around shelf impact and cost. Each format below is an established option for CTC and blended tea.

• Stand-up or flat-bottom pouch — laminated, heat-sealed, often with a zip. The most economical branded format, lightest to ship, a good barrier against moisture and aroma loss.
• Printed carton (box) with inner pouch — the classic supermarket format. Strong shelf presence, easy stacking; the inner pouch does the barrier work.
• Tin — premium gifting and café counters. Higher unit cost and heavier freight, but the highest perceived value.
• Jar (PET or glass) — visible product, popular in some Gulf and Central Asian retail; glass is heavy and fragile for export.
• Bulk sacks — multi-wall paper sacks with a food-grade liner, typically 25 to 50 kg, for buyers who pack locally or sell to food service.
• Tea bags — string-and-tag or pyramid, in envelopes or loose in a box; the finest CTC grades suit them best. Available on enquiry.

Household packs in India and most milk-tea markets cluster at 250 g, 500 g and 1 kg, which is why Narsibapa’s own range uses exactly those sizes plus a Premium 500 g. A 100 g or 200 g pack works for trial and premium positioning; 1 kg and 2 kg suit large families, restaurants and value retail.

Size affects more than price per pack. A heavier unit lowers packaging cost per kilo, changes the carton count per pallet, and moves the product to a different shelf. Start with one or two sizes that match how your market already buys, then extend.

A clean split of responsibilities avoids most delays. As the brand owner you normally provide the brand name and trademark clearance in your market, print-ready artwork on the packer’s dielines, the mandatory label text for your destination (ingredients, net weight, importer details, best-before format, language) and a GS1 barcode if you sell through retail.

The packer provides the blend developed to your brief and approved sample, packaging sourced to your artwork (or a stock pouch with a printed label for small runs), packing at a registered facility — Narsibapa packs in Morbi under an FSSAI licence — batch coding, export cartons and the shipping documents.

Buyers often assume MOQ is about tea. It is mostly about printed packaging. Rotogravure-printed laminate or offset-printed cartons have a minimum print run, and that run sets the minimum number of packs. Tea itself can be blended in almost any quantity.

This is why a stock pouch with an applied label has a far lower minimum than a fully printed pouch, and why one artwork across several sizes costs more than one size in volume. Ask your packer for both routes and the quantities behind each; Narsibapa confirms minimums per format on enquiry.

A private-label launch has more steps than a bulk order, and the packaging steps usually decide the calendar. Typical sequence: blend brief and samples; sample approval; artwork on the dieline, proof and sign-off; packaging printing (the longest step for custom laminate or cartons); blending and packing; pre-shipment sample; shipment. Plain sacks skip the artwork and printing steps entirely.

The common causes of slippage are artwork revisions after proofing and missing mandatory label text. Fix the label text with your regulatory consultant before design starts, and the rest of the timeline holds.

Before you place the first private-label order, make sure you can tick every item below.

• Blend approved from samples, brewed the way your customers drink it.
• Format and sizes chosen to match how your market already buys tea.
• Label text checked against destination regulations; language and importer details confirmed.
• Artwork on the packer’s dieline, proof signed off, barcode assigned.
• Pro forma agreed: price, quantity, packaging route, Incoterm, port, payment terms.
• Pre-shipment sample approved before sealing; documents list confirmed with your customs broker.