Private label charcoal: your brand on the bag

What can be customised on a private-label charcoal bag?

Bag size, print, label language and pallet configuration can all be customised. Standard sizes run 2, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 kg; custom sizes are agreed per order. The bag can carry a full print of your brand or a standard bag with your printed label, and the label text can be in any language your market requires, with multilingual layouts where one bag serves several countries.

Pallet configuration is part of the package: bags per layer, layers per pallet, wrap and pallet labels are set to your warehouse or your retail customer's receiving standard. The charcoal inside is chosen from the range (Marabu, oak, beech, acacia and charcoal briquettes among others, subject to availability) and its indicative specification is stated per lot.

What must the buyer supply?

The buyer supplies print-ready artwork, the legal text required in its market and the barcodes. Artwork means the final design files with brand elements, colours and dimensions for the chosen bag size; the technical print specification for the bag is agreed per order.

Legal text is the buyer's responsibility because it depends on the destination: product name and net weight, safety warnings (charcoal produces carbon monoxide; never burn indoors), lighting and storage instructions, the importer's or distributor's name and address, and national labelling rules. EAN barcodes come from the buyer's own numbering. The supplier can point out what is usually required, but market-specific legal text stays with the buyer.

• Print-ready artwork for the agreed bag size
• Legal and safety text for the destination market
• Importer or distributor name and address
• EAN barcodes from the buyer's own range

Lead time and cost: what changes with private label

Private label adds lead time and cost compared with standard multilingual bags, because bags are printed to order, artwork is checked, and filling is scheduled as a separate run. Exact lead time depends on bag type, quantity and print method and is confirmed in the quotation, so a supermarket listing for June should be agreed in winter, not in May.

Private label is not available for every charcoal type or every quantity. Types that come and go with global supply (mangrove, ayin and halaban, for example) are harder to commit to a printed bag for a whole season than the core types. Cost and lead time are quoted per order.

Minimums for private-label charcoal

Minimums are agreed per order and depend on the bag format and the print run. A fully printed bag and a printed label on a standard bag have different minimums; both are stated in the quotation. Standard wholesale still starts at one pallet for delivery and single bags at the Skopje office, but a private-label run is planned as a season's quantity, usually in full pallets, trucks or containers.

Tell Virovo Promet the bag size, the number of bags per year and the destination and the quotation will state the minimum run, the lead time and the pallet configuration.

Why supermarkets and distributors choose private label

Supermarkets and distributors put their own brand on charcoal because the bag is then their product: the shopper or the restaurant reorders the brand, not the source, and the customer relationship stays with the brand owner. A retail chain can run one bag design across several countries with a multilingual label; a HoReCa distributor can give its restaurant customers a bag they recognise on every delivery.

Virovo Promet is a family-owned charcoal wholesaler in Skopje, North Macedonia, founded in 1990, exporting full-container loads of hardwood charcoal across Europe and beyond. Private-label and custom-size bags are available on request for retail chains and distributors, and everyone is welcome to visit the Skopje office to see bag samples before committing to a print run.