Author Topic: Boxes for lamb sales (Read 5733 times)

reddevon · « **on:** August 10, 2015, 08:19:16 pm »

Hi, newbie here, looking for a bit of advice. Last year was our first year of lambing and we sold a small number of half lambs to family and friends, but at point of delivery realized we didnt have any "insulated" boxes to deliver the meat in. Planning to do a few more this year and looking for pointers as to where we can buy about twenty boxes at low cost ( recycled cardboard ideally) but with some form of insulation ? Be grateful for any ideas!!
Many thanks in advance

Cheviot · « **Reply #1 on:** August 11, 2015, 12:45:00 pm »

Hi,
Google jb packaging, sorry I don't know if they are recycled cardboard.
Regards
Sue

reddevon · « **Reply #2 on:** August 11, 2015, 04:38:56 pm »

Thanks very much, will give them a shout and check the insulation!

waterbuffalofarmer · « **Reply #3 on:** August 11, 2015, 05:34:54 pm »

I always use insulated polystyrene boxes, for my cheese that is, with layers of ice packs. What about these guys?
http://www.woolcool.com/food/standard-range/
http://www.krautz.org/insulated_cardboard_boxes.htm

Bionic · « **Reply #4 on:** August 11, 2015, 06:51:25 pm »

Woolcool is the stuff I posted about recently. Fresh food that I had ordered was wrapped in the stuff with ice packs inside. Everything was as fresh as a daisy when it arrived.

Kimbo · « **Reply #5 on:** August 11, 2015, 07:45:59 pm »

Woolcool dont advertise their prices. Do you know roughly how much for a 25kg package?

reddevon · « **Reply #6 on:** August 12, 2015, 10:43:52 am »

Thanks Waterbuff, used polystyrene boxes last year but the cost of delivering them to me made them v expensive, so hoping to find a folding option. Any idea on cost Bionic ?

Bionic · « **Reply #7 on:** August 12, 2015, 11:24:14 am »

Sorry, I don't. The parcel I received had it inside I didn't buy it.

Backinwellies · « **Reply #8 on:** August 12, 2015, 04:19:48 pm »

Woolcool only do vast quantities .... They do recommend a retailer who may be able to supply... I decided I would stick to JB boxes we used last year .... Simple and not vastly expensive in small quantities.

Kimbo · « **Reply #9 on:** August 12, 2015, 04:44:43 pm »

thank you backinwellies. I
the JB boxes look good....but are their delivery charges very expensive? We will only need a few boxes

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #10 on:** August 13, 2015, 12:14:18 am »

Quote from: Kimbo on August 12, 2015, 04:44:43 pm

thank you backinwellies. I
the JB boxes look good....but are their delivery charges very expensive? We will only need a few boxes

They're really nice people. Give them a ring and discuss. Tell them we're all saying how good they are - because they are, and we are

I did a heifer in boxes recently, so bought a small quantity of boxes to hold 10kgs meat. For a variety of reasons I ended up ordering three different types of box, which didn't all come from the one depot, as well as chiller strips ditto - so my advice would be to (a) make sure all the boxes will be the same, if possible, or at least come from the same depot - and (b) let the nice lady on the phone help you work that out to minimise your overall costs.

Fyi, even with my not very efficient ordering, it came to £7.30 per customer for the polystyrene box, outer cardboard packaging, chiller strips and delivery of said packaging to my butcher. Yes that's pricey, but the reactions to the very professional packaging were very good indeed, and for a half lamb or 10kgs beef, no-one seemed to mind paying extra for packaging of that quality - although a couple did ask could they reuse their box next time.

If your customers are collecting from the butcher you can do without the outer cardboard wrap, which on my figures would save nearly £1 per customer. And if you can ask them to bring their own chiller packs, that will save another 50p or so.

Oh, and if you are VAT-registered, you can reclaim the VAT on all the packaging and its delivery - and do not have to charge that VAT to your customers. So that would knock £1.25 off my £7.30.

HTH

Kimbo · « **Reply #11 on:** August 13, 2015, 08:52:53 am »

thanks Sally.
So if Im collecting the filled boxes from the butcher then delivering straight to my customers do they have to be in the outer cardboard sleeves?
And are the polystyrene boxes re-useable? That would help a lot as I expect that most of our few sales will be to the same people each time.

Backinwellies · « **Reply #12 on:** August 13, 2015, 10:20:55 am »

How far from Butcher to customers? .........Are customers friends / relations? If just a short drive and customers are friends .. why spend money on special cooled boxes? Its only like buying meat from the supermarket and driving it home.

If you have other customers whom you wish to impress, or a distance to travel then yes cool boxes essential ........we didn't use any cardboard outer sleeves .. we delivered all our boxes.