What Are They using....!

[socialgiraffe]

I just had to submit a quote for 5000 or 10,000 laser transfer heat presses. I did just that and the customer came back to me and said that I was a mile away and that they had received a quote as follows:

Print Size: A4
Substrate: Cotton Bags
Printed Both Sides
Full Colour Transfer Printed
52p per bag

So that is 26p per side of A4

I know this customer so I know that they are not pulling a fast one, I also know that the company who quoted is printing and pressing them in the UK.

So does anyone know what paper they could be using to get the price down to as cheap as this?

I don't mind cutting the profit on large orders but I just can not see how anyone could actually make any profit at this price.

[Dave271069]

when i started a well know embroidery shop in Cardiff area offered me to press some bags for him he told me he does them for disney shop etc i didnt end up doing it as it would of taken all my precious time up dont know prices etc so im not helping much am i? but if it is someone in south wales then i can know them,

[Renniwano]

No idea... but let me know if you find out lol

[Andrew]

No matter which print method I work it out on I cannot see how they can get that costing. Without knowing how they have quoted, might they have extra margin in the bags they are using?

[mrs maggot]

i had a quotation last year from a bag company and the prices were like yours, then the carriage was £18 per box !!! so thats a bit of money back there, i think as with a lot of the large screen printing companies they are just keeping people and machines working

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Guys

This is just for the transfers, not the actual bag. The customer will supply the bags which are cotton tote bags.

The quote states TRANSFER PRINT

The cheapest price I have seen for laser transfer paper is from Target Transfers @ 22p a sheet. I have never tried it as I do not have the machines suitable and I am happy with TMT anyway. But even at 22p that's 44p for the paper, lets say 4p (minimum) per side in print which makes a total of 52p without time for pressing, electric or profit etc.

Personally I think they have made a mistake and that price is for one side only. My customer is a good friend so he is trying to find out more info for me.

Mrs Maggot, you can always arrange a courier to collect. When they are charging that sort of price it will often work out a lot cheaper.

[mrs maggot]

well i was quoted last year, 68p +vat for a cotton tote bag and 1 side full a4 print, which i thought was a good price. The reason i mentioned the carriage charges being high on some quotes is that sometimes if you are not on good terms with your customers, you might only see that they are being quoted xx for something without seeing the high transport costs. with my large out sourced orders i always arrange collection

[Johnny]

I'd get an official quote, written in full from the alternative supplier, if possible. That way you can see if you're quoting like for like.
Do you know what the artwork is yet? Could it be screen printed?

Try and negotiate a price on the paper? Assuming 100 sheets per box that's 50-odd boxes which is quite an amount.
J.

[logobear]

you can get good laser paper for a lot less than 22p a sheet, but only if you are buying 5k+ sheets at a time, printing price is the big unknown thou.
it does appear that they are working for nothing, there might be screen printers in this price region thou...

[socialgiraffe]

Johnny, I know it is a like for like quote. A very good friend of mine works for the customer who requires the printing. He would send me the quote if I asked. I have not seen the artwork yet, but the cheapest I know of for a full colour screen print is around the 50p per position. This would be for up to a 12 colour print or a CMYK set.

It's actually 10,000 sheets as the item is double sided.

Where would you guys start looking to purchase that amount? I have not approached anyone yet as I figure there is no way I am going to get it down to that sort of price.

It would have to be a UK company because of the deadline and I would have to purchase for about the 15p a sheet mark to make a profit. Even then, 5000 bags would only net you about £500-700 profit max. I do not mind that it would take longer than someone who has a few automatics running but even so, it would still take about 10 days which is only £50-70 a day.