What It Actually Costs — From Ingredients to Your Customer's Door

The question we hear most on first calls: "What does it cost to run X units?" The honest answer is that co-packing is only one of seven cost buckets between a formula and a customer opening their order. Here's the full chain.

1. Ingredients

The most obvious cost — and the one most brands underestimate on a per-unit basis. Protein, adaptogens, electrolyte minerals, and active ingredients at supplement grade cost more than food grade. Get a quote from your ingredient supplier with COAs included before you start building your pro forma.

Key rule: Order at 110% of your expected finished output. You will lose 5–10% to yield. Order short and you're running a second production job to cover the gap.

2. Film / Roll Stock

Your packaging film is a custom-printed, custom-sized product manufactured specifically for your pouch dimensions. It is not a commodity. Expect to pay $300–$800 for a small run of roll stock, more for premium barrier films or complex print jobs.

Lead time is 10–12 business days from artwork approval. This is the most common reason first runs get pushed — brands underestimate how long film takes and try to rush it. Order film before you think you need to.

3. Co-Packing / Tolling

At Overgang, the base rate is $2,750 flat for any sachet or stick pack run up to 8,000 units. That includes blending, machine setup, the full production run, quality checks, and bulk packout. Flavor changeovers are $149 for a non-allergen swap, $549 for a full clean-out.

On a 5,000-unit run at 30g fill weight, your co-packing cost is $2,750 — or $0.55/unit. On 12,000 units at a custom per-pouch rate, that drops. The more you run, the lower the per-unit tolling.

4. Inbound Freight

Your ingredients and film have to get to the facility. For small runs, this is typically $150–$300 via ground freight. Budget for it and ship with tracking — late materials trigger a 25% slot-move fee or 50% cancellation fee at most facilities including ours.

5. Storage

If your finished goods don't go straight to customers, they go into storage. At Overgang, storage is $25/pallet/month with no receiving fee. At a traditional 3PL, expect $30–$80/pallet/month plus receiving fees, monthly platform fees, and account minimums that apply whether your product moves or not.

Storage is where slow-moving inventory compounds. A product that takes 6 months to sell through costs you $150/pallet in storage on top of the capital you have tied up in the inventory itself.

6. Fulfillment

Pick, pack, and label per order. At Overgang this runs $2.50–$3.50 per order depending on product size. At a large 3PL, you're looking at similar per-order fees plus a $200–$500/month platform fee regardless of how many orders you ship.

For a brand doing 50 orders a month, a $300/month platform fee adds $6/order to your fulfillment cost before a single box is picked. That math matters.

7. Outbound Shipping

The cost of getting your product to your customer. At Overgang, we pass carrier cost straight through with zero markup if you pay weekly. If you want net-30 terms, it's carrier cost plus 18% — we're carrying your receivable and we disclose that upfront.

A typical DTC supplement order ships for $5–$9 depending on weight and zone. A pallet going to a distributor runs $150–$400 depending on distance and carrier.

The Full Picture — 5,000 Unit Example

Cost Bucket	5,000 Units (30g fill)	Per Unit
Ingredients (at $0.55/unit)	$2,750	$0.55
Film	$350	$0.07
Co-packing (Overgang flat rate)	$2,750	$0.55
Inbound freight	$200	$0.04
Storage (2 months)	$50	$0.01
Fulfillment ($3/order, 500 orders)	$1,500	$0.30
Outbound shipping ($7/order avg)	$3,500	$0.70
Total	$11,100	$2.22

At a $2.99 retail price per sachet in a 20-pack ($59.80/unit), your margin per sachet is $0.77 — about 26%. That's before any marketing spend. Know your full cost stack before you set your price.

The brands that scale successfully are the ones who model all seven buckets before they run a single unit — and who start with a run size that lets them learn without betting the business on the outcome.