The biggest challenges of getting packaging out of China, especially if you do need it to ship from China and not just deliver to a CM within China is as follows:
- Language / Time difference. I am in California, so I know that when I need to speak to someone in China about a project, my 5pm is right around their 8am the next day. So you need to be able to have the flexibility to take zoom or WeChat calls. It is more effective than merely relying on emails.
- China is great at reproducing a design or following a spec, but you really really need to stress quality and what aspects of quality are most important. If it is cosmetics, make a cosmetic criteria with clear pass/fail examples. The more info you can arm your vendor with, the better your chances of getting the quality you expect. Think about hiring a 3rd party inpsection service if you are not able to physically be at the factory signing off on the first production run.
- A huge game changer is when you are able to have somebody from your “team” or company present in China to meet with vendors and sign off on quality and other aspects of production. Or you need a partner producing your packaging who has boots on the ground.
- Shipping Times and Freight Damage: You really need to understand the freight aspect to know how to protect your packaging and get it on time. Nothing worse than months of work being ruined by poorly packaged packaging.
So, rather than me just give you names of factories in China, I am going to give you the name of a global company based in the United States, with 40 offices around the world including 2 in China. This company has been in business for over 80 years and specializes is designing and producing custom packaging anywhere in the world. They act as the bridge between your packaging needs and the factories that can fulfill those needs. Working with a professional packaging company like this allows them to handle the program and leg work, and lets you focus on running your business.
This company is The Stephen Gould Corporation. I see you are in Great Britain, SGC has an office in Ireland. Their website is Stephen Gould
Full disclosure, I have been with Stephen Gould for over 25 years and I specialize in custom packaging for sensitive electronics and medical devices. I handle almost $20MM USD in sales per year to my global clients, all of whom are based in Silicon Valley.