Soap Display Boxes

That depends on your bar, which is why we ask for one before quoting. A typical handmade bar runs 90 to 140 grams at around 85 by 60 by 30 millimeters, and we build the cavities around the bar you actually make.

Working from that typical bar, a 6 bar counter unit lands near a 135 by 195 millimeter internal footprint. Twelve bars need about 195 by 260 millimeters. Twenty four bars need about 260 by 390 millimeters, and thirty six bars need roughly 390 millimeters square.

Standing the bars upright rather than laying them flat matters more than the footprint. Upright shows the label to the customer, it lets someone lift one bar without disturbing the rest, and it fits noticeably more product into the same counter space.

A floor display is a different scale entirely. A half pallet footprint of about 600 by 400 millimeters holds 150 to 300 bars, and a multi tier stand on the same footprint holds more than 300.

Because a full display is partly held up by the product inside it. The bars press outward against the walls and keep everything square. As the display sells down, that support disappears and the panels have nothing to push back against.

This is the single most common complaint in the category, and it is almost never a board weight problem. It is a structure problem, and the fixes cost very little.

• A front lip holds the front row upright and stops bars sliding forward as the unit empties
• Dividers turn one large cavity into small ones, so each remaining bar still has walls around it
• A folded double wall at the front and sides carries the load without the panel bowing outward
• A rear riser angles the display back so bars lean into the unit rather than out of it

Dividers are the item most people cut on cost and then regret. A twelve bar display with dividers still looks deliberate when four bars are left. Without them, four bars in a large open tray look like something got knocked over.

It depends on how you market the product, not on what it is made of. Under FDA's definition a product is regulated as soap only when three things are all true. The bulk of the nonvolatile matter has to be an alkali salt of fatty acids. The detergent properties have to come from those alkali fatty acid compounds. And the product has to be labeled, sold and represented solely as soap.

That third condition is where most makers fall out of the definition without realizing it. The moment you describe the bar as moisturizing, deodorizing or fragranced, it is no longer being sold solely as soap. It becomes a cosmetic, and cosmetic labeling rules apply to it.

For a cosmetic, FDA requires an ingredient declaration that is conspicuous enough to read at the time of purchase, listed in descending order of predominance. Colorants and anything present at one percent or less can sit outside that order. The information panel also has to carry the name and place of business, and the country of origin on imported goods.

None of that is legal advice and your formulator or counsel should confirm your position. What it means for the display is straightforward. A cosmetic needs considerably more printed panel than soap does. That space has to be designed into the header and the panels before the die is cut, not squeezed in afterwards.

Start from the filled weight rather than the footprint, because that is what the base actually carries. At 115 grams a bar, a 12 bar unit holds about 1.4 kilograms, a 24 bar unit about 2.8 kilograms, and a 36 bar unit about 4.1 kilograms.

Folding carton at 300 to 350 GSM, which is 0.35 to 0.46 millimeters of caliper, covers 6 and 12 bar counter units comfortably. Move to E flute at around 1.6 millimeters for 24 and 36 bar units, and for anything with a tall header. A header acts as a sail every time someone brushes past it.

Floor displays are a different specification. A half pallet base wants B flute at 32 ECT, which carries about 65 pounds. A multi tier stand wants BC double wall at 48 ECT, which carries 86 to 100 pounds.

Humidity is the part almost every specification leaves out. Board loses a large share of its strength as it takes up moisture, and a bathroom aisle, a coastal store or an unconditioned stockroom is a humid place. If your displays sit for months rather than weeks, go up a grade rather than adding a second layer of board.

Yes, and on a display it matters far more than it does in a box. The bars are usually unwrapped and pressed directly against the board for weeks at a time.

Fragrance and essential oils migrate into uncoated paperboard over time. Two things follow from that. The board takes up the scent and holds it, which is why an old display smells of whatever sat in it. And scents can travel between neighboring bars through a shared cavity, so a strong fragrance slowly contaminates a delicate one.

The measurable handle for this is the Kit test, TAPPI T 559. It rates a board against a numbered series of increasingly aggressive oil solutions and reports the highest one the surface survives without failing. Higher numbers mean more resistance, and you can ask a board supplier for the Kit rating exactly the way you ask for the GSM.

One caveat is worth knowing, and it comes from the testing labs rather than from board sellers. The Kit method was designed for boards treated with fluorochemical sizing. A Kit number therefore does not fully describe a board whose barrier comes from a coating or a film. Ask what is producing the barrier before you compare two suppliers on the number alone.

In practice most soap brands solve this with a physical layer rather than a treated board. A coated inner face, a wrapped bar or a divider between scents all slow the migration down. If your range mixes something strong like patchouli with something delicate like lavender, dividers stop being optional.

They are two different products that get sold under one name, and choosing the wrong one wastes money in opposite directions.

A counter display sits beside a till or on a shelf and holds 6 to 36 bars. It gets picked up, moved, knocked and refilled, so its whole problem is staying square while being handled. Folding carton or E flute covers it.

A floor display holds 150 bars upwards, is loaded once, wheeled into position and then never moves again. Its whole problem is the base carrying the stack without spreading, which is why it needs B flute or BC double wall and a reinforced base.

If you supply independent stores, gift shops and market stalls, the counter unit is almost always the right answer. Floor displays only make sense with a retailer who has both the floor space and the volume to justify giving it up, and most independents have neither.

Yes, and kraft is the most requested board in this category by a wide margin. It reads as natural and handmade, which matches how most artisan soap is positioned, and it costs less than white board.

Kraft prints cleanly in one or two colors and it takes white ink well, which gives you contrast without abandoning the natural ground. What it will not do is hold a photograph or a pale tint accurately, because the brown ground shifts every color warm and unpredictably.

If your artwork depends on soft botanical pastels or a photographic image, white SBS is the honest answer even though it costs more. There is no finish or coating that makes kraft behave like white board for pale colors.

Whichever ground you choose, put the range name on the header panel. That is the surface a customer reads first, from a step back, before they are close enough to pick up a bar.

The minimum is 100 units per size, counted per size because every size needs its own cutting die. A 12 bar unit and a 24 bar unit are therefore two separate minimums rather than 200 units of one thing.

Production runs 8 to 10 business days after you approve the dieline and the artwork. Before that clock starts, allow 3 to 5 business days for a plain structural sample or 7 to 10 business days for a printed pre production sample.

There is no setup or tooling charge at any stage. The die and the printing plates sit inside your unit price on the first order and on every reorder after it. A repeat run is priced exactly like any other run at that quantity.

Price breaks come in at 500 units and again at 1,000 units on the same artwork, and shipping is free across the United States.