Custom shaped pouch — made to order: outline shape, size, thickness and printing up to 10 colours are all specified per run.
A shaped pouch is die-cut to an outline you draw. Most packaging competes inside a rectangle; this one changes the silhouette, which is the one thing a shopper registers before reading anything. It is used where the pack is part of the product — gift and promotional lines, premium coffee, speciality food — and where a brand has a mark or a form worth cutting the pouch to.
What the die can and cannot do
Rounded corners, hang holes, integral handles and a full custom outline are all possible; what is not possible is a shape that leaves too little sealed edge to hold the fill. We work back from the fill weight to the minimum seal band and then cut to it. The structure here is Kraft paper/PE, which gives the recyclable, natural look these brands usually want — with the honest trade-off that oxygen barrier is 1 of 5 and moisture 3 of 5, so this is a format for products that turn over rather than sit.
Ordering a shape
Send artwork and we will return a dieline; outline shape, size, thickness and printing up to ten colours are made to order. Typical fills are coffee and tea, nuts and dried fruit, organic lines, and gift packs. If the outline matters less than the barrier, the stand-up pouch takes the same kraft look in higher-barrier structures. Artwork setup, dielines and what we need from your designer are covered in printing and finishing.
What moves the price
A cutting die is a one-off tooling cost, and the shape wastes more film per pouch than a rectangle does — both are quoted openly so the silhouette can be costed rather than assumed. Beyond that the usual levers apply, though this format is rarely ordered at gravure volumes, so the digital price is normally the relevant one. A complex outline with tight radii costs more to cut and runs slower than a simple one.
Where it goes wrong
A shape drawn without a seal band. The fill weight sets the minimum sealed edge, and an outline that leaves too little will not hold the product — we work back from the weight to the band and cut to that, which sometimes means the drawing changes. The second is expecting barrier from a format chosen for its look: kraft structures are 1 of 5 on oxygen, so this is a pack for products that move. And artwork that ignores the die line, where a logo sits where the cut goes.
Where custom shaped pouch is used
Premium coffee and tea, speciality food, gift and promotional packs, and children’s ranges where the silhouette is doing the work. It is the one format here bought for how it looks rather than for what it protects, and the structure reflects that. Where the brand needs both the look and a real barrier, a kraft outer over a foil ply is possible at a higher cost — the printing and finishing page covers the artwork, the dieline and the finishes, and coffee packaging covers what a speciality roaster gives up for the kraft look.
What to send us for a quotation
A quotation for custom shaped pouch is written against a specification, so the more of this you can send, the closer the first number is to the real one: which structure, or the shelf life and the product so we can choose one — Kraft paper/PE are available here; the temperature the pack has to survive, from filling through to how the customer opens it (ambient for this product); the line it runs on — this one is specified for die cutting and Pre-made pouch filling; which options you want fitted: custom outline, Hang hole and Handle; the values for outline shape, Size, Thickness and Printing up to 10 colours.
Send the fill weight and the quantity with it. Where you already buy something similar, a sample is worth more than a description — we measure what is actually there rather than quoting against how it was once written down.
Food-contact and export requirements are set out in FDA 21 CFR 177, the US rule for food-contact polymers; the declarations for this structure are issued with the order.
