Packing Tape Wholesale: Packs of 6, Cost per Metre and How Much to Buy

Buying packing tape wholesale means buying it by the pack of 6 rolls, with a lower price per pack the more packs you order, and judging each pack by its cost per metre and not its price per roll. To get that figure, divide the pack price by the metres in the pack: 396m for six 66m rolls, 792m for six 132m rolls and 900m for six 150m rolls.

This guide is for anyone who seals boxes every working day: online sellers, warehouses, removal firms and trade counters. It covers how wholesale tape is sold, how to compare 66m, 132m and 150m rolls with the arithmetic written out, how to work out the number of rolls your own packing bench uses, which tapes are worth keeping in stock, and how ordering and delivery work when you buy from us.

Quick picks for buying packing tape in bulk

If you want a short answer, these three cover the stock tape for most packing benches.

Best for sealing brown cartons every day

Brown Packing Tape

Buff polypropylene packing tape that matches brown boxes, in five roll sizes.

• Packs of 6 rolls
• 48mm x 66m, 48mm x 132m and BigTape 48mm x 150m Low Noise
• Proloc 72mm x 66m for bigger cartons

From £4.50 ex VAT (£5.40 inc VAT)

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Best for taping over labels and printed boxes

Clear Packing Tape

Transparent polypropylene tape, so labels and barcodes stay readable underneath.

• Packs of 6 rolls
• 24mm, 48mm and 72mm widths
• Standard rolls are 42 micron acrylic polypropylene

From £3.50 ex VAT (£4.20 inc VAT)

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Best for getting through a pack quickly and neatly

Pistol Grip Tape Gun Dispensers

Pistol grip dispensers that lay and cut tape with one hand.

• Four models, sold individually
• Three models take 50mm tape, the PG75B takes 75mm
• Built-in cutting blade

From £5.00 ex VAT (£6.00 inc VAT)

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How does packing tape wholesale pricing work?

Packing tape wholesale pricing works on two levers: the pack and the tier. The pack is the unit of sale, which for our packing tapes is 6 rolls. The tier is the quantity break, where the price per pack falls as you add more packs to the same order. Both are shown on each product page, so you can see the saving before you commit.

You do not need an account or a pallet order to buy this way. The minimum order on every tape is one pack, and the volume prices apply automatically at the basket. That suits a seller who uses a pack a month as well as a warehouse that uses several a week.

Three things decide what you really pay for tape:

• Price per pack. The figure on the page, ex VAT. Brown packing tape is from £4.50 ex VAT (£5.40 inc VAT) per pack of 6 and clear packing tape is from £3.50 ex VAT (£4.20 inc VAT) per pack of 6. Each roll size has its own price, so see the product page for the roll you want.
• Metres per pack. A pack of six 150m rolls holds more than twice the tape of a pack of six 66m rolls. You can see that in the price per metre but not in the price per roll.
• Packs per order. The more packs in one order, the lower the price per pack, following the tiers on the page.

If you buy for a business every month, a trade account is worth setting up, and for quantities above the listed tiers you can ring us on 0161 706 1246 for a quote. A VAT invoice comes with every order either way. For how trade buying works across boxes, bags and wrap as well as tape, see our guide to wholesale packaging supplies in the UK.

How do you work out the cost per metre of 66m, 132m and 150m rolls?

To work out the cost per metre of packing tape, multiply the roll length by the number of rolls in the pack, then divide the pack price by that total. A pack of 6 rolls at 66m is 396 metres. A pack of 6 at 132m is 792 metres. A pack of 6 at 150m is 900 metres. Those three totals are all you need to compare any two packs of 48mm tape.

1. Find the roll length in the product name, for example 48mm x 66m.
2. Multiply it by 6 to get the metres in the pack: 66 x 6 = 396m.
3. Take the pack price ex VAT at the quantity you plan to order. Use the tier price, because that is what you will pay.
4. Divide the price by the metres. The answer is pounds per metre. Multiply by 100 to read it in pence.
5. Do the same for the other roll lengths and compare the pence per metre figures.

To try the method, take a real number from our range: the dearest pack of brown or clear tape we list is £14.00 ex VAT (£16.80 inc VAT). We have not tied that price to a roll here, because each roll is priced on its own product page and prices change. The table shows what £14.00 would work out to per metre on each roll length, so you can see how much the length moves the answer.

The table also gives you a ceiling. Every brown and clear pack we sell costs £14.00 ex VAT or less and holds at least 396m, so none of them costs more than 3.54p a metre ex VAT on the listed prices. Most of the range sits well under that.

There is a quicker test if you do not want to work in pence. A pack of 132m rolls holds exactly twice the tape of a pack of 66m rolls, so the 132m pack is cheaper per metre whenever it costs less than twice the 66m pack. A pack of 150m rolls holds 900 ÷ 396 = 2.27 times the tape, so it wins whenever it costs less than 2.27 times the 66m pack. Check the two prices on the page, multiply the 66m price by 2 or by 2.27, and you have your answer in a few seconds.

Compare like with like when you do this. The 132m and standard 66m rolls are the same tape: acrylic adhesive on 42 micron polypropylene film. BigTape 150m is a 43 micron film with a premium acrylic adhesive and a low noise unwind, so part of its price is the quieter roll and not only the extra metres. Width matters too. A 72mm roll lays one and a half times the tape area of a 48mm roll per metre, so a 72mm pack will cost more per metre and that is fair. Only compare 48mm with 48mm.

How many rolls of tape does a packing bench use in a week?

A packing bench uses the tape on one box multiplied by the boxes it sends, so the way to forecast is to measure one of your own parcels. There is no standard figure that fits every bench, because a 6 inch cube and a removal carton take very different lengths of tape. The method takes five minutes and a tape measure.

1. Pick the box you send most often and seal it the way your packers do.
2. Measure every strip of tape on it, top and bottom, including the ends that fold down the sides. Add the strips together. That is your metres per box.
3. Count the boxes that bench sends in a normal week.
4. Multiply metres per box by boxes per week. That is your metres of tape per week.
5. Divide by the roll length (66, 132 or 150) for rolls per week, and divide by 6 for packs per week. Round up, because a roll never gives every last metre and some tape is lost to mis-cuts.

The figures in this worked example are made up for one imaginary bench, so swap in your own. Say the box is 300mm long and 200mm wide across the top. One strip along the centre seam, with 50mm folded down each end, is 400mm. Top and bottom make 0.8m of tape per box.

If your packers also tape across the two short edges, which is called an H seal, each face gains two strips of 200mm plus 50mm each end, so 600mm more. That is 1.0m per face and 2.0m per box. How you seal changes your tape use more than the brand of tape does.

Over a week, if that imaginary bench sends 100 boxes a day, five days a week, with a centre seam only, it uses 500 x 0.8 = 400m a week. That is 400 ÷ 66 = 6.06 rolls of 66m, so about one pack of 6 a week. On 150m rolls it is 400 ÷ 150 = 2.67 rolls, and one pack of 6 lasts a little over two weeks. With an H seal on every box the same bench uses 1,000m a week: just over 15 rolls of 66m, or under 7 rolls of 150m.

Once you have your own weekly figure, the order size follows from it. You can also bring the figure down. A crash lock box has a base that locks as you open it, so there is no tape underneath and you only seal the top. A self-seal mailing bag needs no tape at all. If half your orders are soft goods, moving them from boxes to bags will cut your tape spend more than any roll length will. Our packing tape guide covers how much tape different seals use on different box sizes in more detail.

Which packing tapes should you keep in stock?

Most benches need one main sealing tape in bulk and one or two specialist tapes in smaller quantities. Pick the main tape by the boxes you use, buy that one in volume, and treat the rest as top-ups. You rarely need to stock every tape we sell.

Brown or clear as the main tape. They do the same job and the standard rolls are the same 42 micron acrylic polypropylene. Brown blends into a brown carton. Clear lets a label, barcode or printed box show through. If you cannot decide, our comparison of brown tape vs clear tape goes through the choice. Buying one colour in volume reaches a better price tier than splitting the same number of packs across two.

Fragile tape as a top-up. Fragile tape has FRAGILE printed along its whole length, so it seals the box and marks it without a separate sticker. It costs more per pack than plain tape, from £5.50 ex VAT (£6.60 inc VAT), so use it on the parcels that need the warning and plain tape on the rest. A printed warning does not replace padding inside the box, which is the subject of our post on fragile tape and fragile stickers.

Kraft paper tape if you want paper. Kraft paper tape is a paper based tape with a matt brown finish, in 48mm x 50m with hotmelt adhesive and 75mm x 50m. It is the dearest tape here per metre: packs are from £14.00 to £20.00 ex VAT (£16.80 to £24.00 inc VAT) and every pack holds 6 x 50m = 300m, so kraft works out between 4.67p and 6.67p a metre ex VAT on the listed prices. That is more than any brown or clear film pack we sell. Buy it because you want a paper tape or the kraft look on your parcels. If cost per metre is all that matters, plain brown is cheaper. Our paper tape guide explains the types.

Best for a paper based seal

Kraft Paper Tape

Brown kraft paper tape for sealing cardboard boxes with a matt, natural finish.

• 48mm x 50m Hotmelt or 75mm x 50m
• Packs of 6 rolls, 300m per pack
• Matches kraft and brown boxes

From £14.00 ex VAT (£16.80 inc VAT)

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Low noise rolls for shared spaces. BigTape 48mm x 150m and Vibac 835 Buff 48mm x 66m unwind more quietly than standard tape. That matters in a shared office, a shop floor or a home where someone packs in the evening. In a warehouse with forklifts running, standard tape is fine and you can save the money.

Wide and narrow rolls for the edges of the range. Proloc 72mm x 66m covers more of the seam on large or heavy cartons in one pass. The 24mm x 66m clear roll suits small parcels, padded envelopes and light office jobs. Neither should be your main tape unless most of your parcels are very big or very small.

Are longer rolls and a tape gun worth it when you buy in bulk?

Longer rolls are worth it when they cost less per metre on the day you order, or when roll changes are slowing your bench down. A tape gun is worth it for anyone sealing more than a handful of boxes a day. Both get the tape you have paid for onto the box with less waste and less stopping.

Count the roll changes. To lay 900m of tape you load six 150m rolls, seven 132m rolls or fourteen 66m rolls. Each change means stopping, finding the tape end and re-threading the gun. On a bench that gets through a pack a week that is a small saving. On a line with several packers it adds up over a month. Longer rolls also take less shelf space per metre, because there are fewer cores and fewer packs.

The trade-off is weight in the hand. A 150m roll is a bigger, heavier roll than a 66m roll, and some packers who tape by hand without a gun prefer the smaller one. If your team already likes 66m rolls and the price per metre is close, there is no need to change.

On guns, match the gun to the tape width. Our pistol grip tape guns come in four models, sold individually from £5.00 ex VAT (£6.00 inc VAT). The PG50B, the heavy duty HPG50B Pacplus and the Big Tape 2in1 Core take 50mm tape, which is the size for our 48mm brown, clear and fragile rolls. The PG75B takes 75mm tape, for wide rolls. If you are not sure a gun fits a particular roll, such as the 150m BigTape or the 72mm Proloc, check the product page or ring 0161 706 1246 and we will check for you before you order a case of tape to go with it.

Best for one-handed box sealing

Pistol Grip Tape Gun Dispensers

A pistol grip dispenser with a built-in blade, so the scissors stay in the drawer.

• PG50B for everyday 50mm tape
• HPG50B Pacplus and Big Tape 2in1 Core for all-day use
• PG75B for 75mm tape

From £5.00 ex VAT (£6.00 inc VAT)

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Buy one gun per packer and a spare. The price per gun drops when you buy several, following the tiers on the page. If your packers work at a fixed station, a bench dispenser may suit them better than a gun, and our tape dispenser guide compares the two. New starters can learn threading from how to load a tape gun.

How do you buy bulk packaging tape from Pack Solution?

You buy bulk packaging tape from us by choosing the roll, setting the number of packs and checking out: the tier price applies on its own and there is no minimum beyond one pack. We are a packaging tape supplier based in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, and we ship across the UK. Royal Mail Tracked 48 delivery is free on every order with no minimum, and orders placed by 2pm Monday to Friday leave our unit the same working day.

How many packs to order. Take your weekly usage from the method above and decide how many weeks of stock you want on the shelf. Four to eight weeks is a sensible range for most small businesses: enough to reach a better price tier and ride out a busy spell, without tying up cash. If a pack lasts you a week, an order of four to eight packs covers one to two months. Check the tiers on the product page first. If the next price break is one or two packs above your number, it is often worth rounding up, because tape keeps.

How to store it. Keep tape in its packs, somewhere dry, at room temperature and out of direct sun. Use the oldest packs first. Tape stored next to a heater or in a damp unit is the tape that later lifts off the box, and no price tier makes up for that.

Order tape with the rest of your packaging. Delivery is free on any order, so there is no penalty for small top-ups. Even so, one combined order of tape, boxes and bags means one delivery to receive and one invoice to file. The same cost-per-unit thinking applies to those lines, and we have covered it in buying cardboard boxes in bulk and mailing bags wholesale.

If you are near Manchester. Click and collect is free and orders are usually ready within 2 hours. We also run same-day van delivery within 10 miles of Cheetham Hill, which helps when a bench is down to its last roll.

If you need more than the listed tiers. Ring 0161 706 1246 or use the contact page with the roll, the number of packs and how often you reorder. We will quote for the quantity. We cannot promise to be the cheapest supplier on every roll on every day, and we would rather you ran the cost per metre sum on our live prices and judged for yourself.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many rolls of packing tape come in a wholesale pack?

Our brown, clear, fragile and kraft paper packing tapes are all sold in packs of 6 rolls. The minimum order is one pack, and the price per pack falls as you add more packs to the order. The price tiers are shown on each product page.

How do I calculate the cost per metre of packing tape?

To calculate the cost per metre of packing tape, multiply the roll length by the number of rolls in the pack, then divide the pack price by that total. A pack of 6 rolls at 66m holds 396m, a pack of 6 at 132m holds 792m and a pack of 6 at 150m holds 900m. For example, a £14.00 pack holding 900m costs 1.56p per metre ex VAT.

Is a 150m roll of packing tape cheaper than a 66m roll?

A pack of six 150m rolls is cheaper per metre than a pack of six 66m rolls whenever the 150m pack costs less than 2.27 times the price of the 66m pack, because 900m is 2.27 times 396m. Check both live prices on the product page and run that sum. Bear in mind that BigTape 150m is a 43 micron low noise tape, so the two rolls are not identical.

How many boxes can I seal with one roll of packing tape?

The number of boxes one roll of packing tape seals depends on the tape you use per box, so measure the strips on one of your own sealed boxes and divide the roll length by that figure. As an example only, a box that takes 0.8m of tape gets 82 boxes from a 66m roll and 187 boxes from a 150m roll. An H seal on the same box uses more tape and lowers both numbers.

Do I need a trade account to buy packing tape wholesale from Pack Solution?

You do not need a trade account to buy packing tape wholesale from Pack Solution. Volume pricing applies automatically at the basket, the minimum order is one pack of 6 rolls and a VAT invoice comes with every order. A trade account is there for regular buyers, and you can ring 0161 706 1246 for a quote on quantities above the listed tiers.

Which tape gun fits 48mm packing tape?

Our 48mm packing tape goes with a tape gun made for 50mm tape. We stock three 50mm pistol grip models: the PG50B, the heavy duty HPG50B Pacplus and the Big Tape 2in1 Core. The PG75B model takes 75mm tape, so it is the one to look at for wide rolls.

Shop for This Job

• Packing Tapes
• Cardboard Boxes
• Mailing & Polythene Bags

Related Guides

• Wholesale Packaging Supplies UK: How Trade Buying Works
• Packing Tape Guide: Parcel Tape Types, Widths and How Much You Need
• Mailing Bags Wholesale: How Many to Order and Cutting Cost per Parcel

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