Small business packaging supplies for a Stockport shop or maker come down to a few products bought often: boxes, something to wrap with, mailing bags and tape. Pack Solution stocks them at Unit 2, 50 Derby Street, Cheetham Hill, Manchester M8 8HF. Stockport town centre (SK1) is about 7.2 miles away in a straight line, and the SK1 to SK5 districts sit roughly 5.6 to 8.4 miles away, all inside our 10 mile van zone.
This guide is for independent shops, makers, market traders and small online sellers around Stockport. It explains how to order little and often, when the free courier is enough and when the van is worth it, and which packaging suits which product. For the full delivery map and a postcode checker, see our local delivery page for Greater Manchester.
In This Guide
- Quick picks: small business packaging supplies for Stockport
- Key facts for Stockport deliveries
- Little and often: how should a Stockport small business order?
- Free Tracked 48 or a same-day van to Stockport?
- Which packaging for which product?
- Boxes for small business orders
- Bubble wrap and kraft paper: wrapping and void fill
- Mailing bags and tape
- Ordering for Stockport, Cheadle and Hyde
- Frequently Asked Questions
Quick picks: small business packaging supplies for Stockport
A maker posting candles, ceramics, prints or clothing can cover most orders with these three.
Best for everyday product orders
Single Wall Cardboard Boxes
Light corrugated boxes for posted orders, sold per box with a minimum of 5 per size.
- 5 x 5 x 5" up to 24 x 18 x 18"
- Includes the 450 x 350 x 160mm Royal Mail Small Parcel max size
- Supplied flat
From £0.35 ex VAT (£0.42 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView product
Best for wrapping small, delicate items
Small Bubble Wrap
10mm bubbles that hug small and awkward shapes, on 100m rolls.
- 300mm or 500mm wide
- 100m per roll
- Price per roll falls as you buy more
From £9.00 ex VAT (£10.80 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView product
Best for clothing and soft goods with a clean look
White Mailing Bags
Opaque white self-seal mailers that show a label or handwritten address clearly.
- 5 sizes, 9 x 12" to 17 x 22"
- Packs of 100
- Self-seal strip, tamper evident
From £4.50 ex VAT (£5.40 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productKey facts for Stockport deliveries
- Stockport town centre (SK1) is about 7.2 miles from our unit, measured in a straight line.
- Stockport's SK1 to SK5 districts are roughly 5.6 to 8.4 miles away. Cheadle (SK8) is about 8.2 miles and Hyde (SK14) about 8.3 miles.
- Our 3 vans cover 10 miles in a straight line from M8 8HF. Van orders placed by 12pm Monday to Friday arrive the same day.
- Free local van delivery on qualifying orders. Call 0161 706 1246 or WhatsApp +44 7466 559897 to check your order.
- Royal Mail Tracked 48 is free on every order with no minimum. Courier orders placed by 2pm Monday to Friday leave the same working day.
- Free click and collect from Cheetham Hill is usually ready within 2 hours.
Check your postcode for same-day van delivery
Little and often: how should a Stockport small business order?
Most small businesses do not have a stockroom. Packaging sits under the counter, in a cupboard at the back of the shop or in a corner of a spare room. That makes it sensible to order smaller amounts more often instead of buying months of stock at once.
Ordering little and often has three advantages. You tie up less cash in boxes and bags. You keep space free for your own products. And you can change sizes quickly when you launch a new line, rather than being stuck with a pile of boxes that no longer fit.
The trade-off is price per item. Many of our products have volume pricing, so the price per pack drops as you order more. A good middle ground for most small shops is to buy two to four weeks of the items you use every day, such as your main box size, your main bag size and tape, and smaller amounts of everything else.
Seasonal businesses need a plan for the busy weeks. A candle maker in Heaton Moor or a gift shop in the town centre may post twice as many orders in November and December as in the summer. Order the extra packaging in October, while there is time to try new sizes, and go back to smaller orders in the new year.
Set a simple trigger for each item. When you open the last pack of bags or the last bundle of boxes, place the next order. With free Tracked 48 the new stock usually arrives within a few working days, and if you have left it late, a 12pm van order gets it to you the same day.
Free Tracked 48 or a same-day van to Stockport?
Stockport is close enough for our vans and far enough that most people will not pop over to collect. That leaves two main options, and they suit different situations.
Royal Mail Tracked 48 is free on every order with no minimum. If you order by 2pm Monday to Friday, the parcel leaves our unit the same working day and usually arrives two to three working days later. For regular restocks that you plan ahead, this is the obvious choice.
The van is for when time matters or the order is bulky. Orders placed by 12pm Monday to Friday are delivered the same day, and later orders the next working day. The vans do not run on Saturday, Sunday or bank holidays. Free local van delivery on qualifying orders. Call 0161 706 1246 or WhatsApp +44 7466 559897 to check your order.
Remember that the 10 mile zone is measured in a straight line from M8 8HF, not by road. Most of Stockport sits comfortably inside it, but if your shop or workshop is on the far side of the borough, check the postcode before you plan around a same-day drop.
| Situation | Best option | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Regular monthly restock | Royal Mail Tracked 48 | Free, no minimum, arrives in a few working days |
| Ran out of boxes this morning | Van, ordered by 12pm | Same-day delivery, Monday to Friday |
| Big order of flat boxes and rolls | Van | Bulky orders go in one drop |
| Passing Cheetham Hill anyway | Click and collect | Free, usually ready within 2 hours |
| Need it before a Saturday market | Order by 12pm Thursday for the van, or earlier for Tracked 48 | No van runs at weekends, and the unit is closed on Saturday |
Keep the cut-offs apart. 12pm is the van cut-off for same-day delivery. 2pm is the courier cut-off for same-day dispatch. An order at 1pm misses the same-day van but still leaves by courier that day.
Which packaging for which product?
Match the packaging to what can go wrong in transit. A T-shirt can be squashed and will be fine. A mug cannot.
| What you sell | Outer | Inside |
|---|---|---|
| Clothing, scarves, soft toys | White mailing bag | Nothing extra, or a fold of kraft paper |
| Candles, soaps, jars | Single wall box with room to spare | Small bubble wrap round each item, kraft paper to fill gaps |
| Ceramics and glassware | Single wall box, larger than the item | Two or more layers of small bubble wrap, then paper fill |
| Prints and cards | Box sized to lie flat | Kraft paper to stop movement |
| Books and stationery | Snug single wall box | Paper to fill any space |
For more on glass and pottery, read our guide on how to pack ceramics and glassware for posting. The rule that applies to everything is simple: nothing should move when you shake the closed box.
Food, drink and liquids need extra care. Seal lids with tape, put bottles and jars in a bag inside the box in case of a leak, and wrap each one separately so they cannot knock together. For anything heavy, choose a box that is only a little larger than the wrapped item, so the weight sits low and the sides are not stretched. If a product line causes repeated breakages, change the packaging before you change the courier, because more wrap and a snugger box usually solve it. Keep a note of any breakages so you can see which products and sizes cause the trouble.
Boxes for small business orders
Cardboard boxes for Stockport small businesses are the workhorse for most small sellers. They are light, strong enough for everyday parcels and supplied flat, so a bundle fits behind a counter. Sizes run from 5 x 5 x 5" (127 x 127 x 127mm) to 24 x 18 x 18" (610 x 457 x 457mm), and sizes are internal, length x width x height.
Two sizes are worth knowing. The 17.7 x 13.7 x 6" (450 x 350 x 160mm) box is the Royal Mail Small Parcel maximum size. The 15.35 x 11.6 x 7.3" (390 x 295 x 185mm) box is listed as extra strong single wall, which helps with heavier jars or books.
Because you buy a minimum of 5 per size, you can try a few packaging boxes for small business use before you commit. Order five of three likely sizes, pack a real product in each, and keep the one that fits with a little room for wrapping. Our postal box sizing guide helps you narrow down the shortlist. The whole range of boxes for small business orders is in the boxes collection.
If you sell at markets or deliver locally by hand, a box does not need to survive a courier network, so a lighter size with less wrapping is often enough. For anything going through Royal Mail or a courier, assume the parcel will be dropped, stacked and turned on its side at least once, and pack for that.
Keep your range of shipping boxes for small business orders tight. Three sizes usually cover most products, and fewer sizes make stock easier to count.
Bubble wrap and kraft paper: wrapping and void fill
Small Bubble Wrap has 10mm bubbles that wrap closely around small and awkward shapes such as handles, lids and corners. It comes on 100m rolls in 300mm and 500mm widths. The narrower roll suits a small desk, and the wider one wraps bigger items in one pass.
Kraft Paper Rolls do two jobs. You can wrap products in them, and you can scrunch them to fill the gaps around an item so it cannot shift. The standard roll is 500mm x 200m in 90gsm. The centre-feed rolls, 200mm x 250m and 375mm x 300m in 70gsm, sit in a dispenser box and pull from the middle, which is handy on a small bench.
Best for paper wrapping and void fill
Kraft Paper Rolls
Strong brown paper for wrapping products and filling gaps, on a standard roll or in a centre-feed box.
- 500mm x 200m standard roll, 90gsm
- Centre-feed boxed rolls, 70gsm
- 200m to 300m per roll
From £25.00 ex VAT (£30.00 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productWork out how much wrapping each order takes. Wrap one typical product, measure the length of bubble wrap or paper you used, and divide the roll length by that figure. It tells you roughly how many orders one roll covers, which makes reordering much easier to plan.
Many makers use both: bubble wrap directly around the fragile item, then kraft paper to fill the box. The full protective range is in the protective packaging collection.
Mailing bags and tape
For anything soft, a mailing bag is lighter and quicker than a box. White mailing bags for Stockport sellers come in five sizes from 9 x 12" (230 x 300mm) to 17 x 22" (430 x 560mm), in packs of 100. The white finish shows a printed label or handwritten address clearly and suits a sticker with your logo. The self-seal strip has a 50mm lip, and the bags are hard to open once sealed. For other colours, see the mailing bags collection.
If you want a wider choice of sizes, grey mailing bags run from 4 x 6" (100 x 150mm) up to 34 x 42" (850 x 1050mm), so there is a bag for everything from a pair of earrings to a duvet. Smaller sizes come in packs of 100 and larger ones in packs of 50 or 25. Many shops keep white bags for gift orders and grey bags for everyday ones.
Best for everyday clothing orders at the lowest weight
Grey Mailing Bags
Opaque grey self-seal mailers with a water resistant outer, in a wide spread of sizes.
- 16 sizes, 4 x 6" to 34 x 42"
- Packs of 100, 50 or 25 by size
- No tape needed
From £2.90 ex VAT (£3.48 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productEvery box needs tape. Small business packaging tape does not need to be anything special: a standard 48mm roll seals most single wall boxes with a strip along the centre seam and a short strip over each end. Brown packing tape blends into the cardboard for a tidy finish, and comes in packs of 6 rolls from the standard 48mm x 66m to the BigTape 48mm x 150m low noise roll, which needs changing far less often. Clear tape keeps any printing on the box readable. Both are in the tapes collection.
Best for sealing brown boxes neatly
Brown Packing Tape
Buff and brown polypropylene tapes that blend into brown cartons.
- 48mm x 66m standard roll
- BigTape 48mm x 150m low noise
- Packs of 6 rolls
From £4.50 ex VAT (£5.40 inc VAT)
Choose sizeView productA tape dispenser or a simple tape gun speeds things up once you are sealing more than a handful of boxes a day, and it gives straighter seams than tearing tape by hand.
Ordering for Stockport, Cheadle and Hyde
Order online and choose Tracked 48 or collection at checkout. For a same-day van to Stockport, Cheadle, Hyde or anywhere else in the SK1 to SK5 districts, call 0161 706 1246, WhatsApp +44 7466 559897 or email sales@packsolution.co.uk to check your order. Van delivery is free on qualifying orders. The local delivery page has the postcode checker and a quote form.
If you post mainly clothing and small items rather than handmade goods, our guide to ecommerce packaging for online sellers goes further into mailing bags, crash lock boxes and shipping labels, and how to work out the packaging cost of each order.
The Stockport delivery details are on our packaging supplies page for Stockport. For an overview of everything we stock for the city, read packaging supplies in Manchester, and for every same-day cut-off in one place, see same-day packaging delivery in Manchester.
Prices on the site are shown ex VAT and VAT invoices are available. If your business orders regularly, you can apply for a trade account.
See Stockport delivery details
Stockport is in our van zone. Order by 12pm Monday to Friday for same-day delivery, or take free Tracked 48 on any order. Check your postcode on our local delivery page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you deliver small business packaging supplies to Stockport?
Yes. Stockport town centre (SK1) is about 7.2 miles from our unit in Cheetham Hill, inside our 10 mile van zone. Van orders placed by 12pm Monday to Friday are delivered the same day, and later orders the next working day. Royal Mail Tracked 48 is free on every order if you can wait.
Which Stockport postcodes are in your van zone?
Stockport's SK1 to SK5 districts sit roughly 5.6 to 8.4 miles away in a straight line, so they are inside the 10 mile zone. Cheadle (SK8) is about 8.2 miles and Hyde (SK14) about 8.3 miles. Use the postcode checker on our local delivery page to confirm your address.
How much is van delivery to Stockport?
Free local van delivery on qualifying orders. Call 0161 706 1246 or WhatsApp +44 7466 559897 to check your order. Royal Mail Tracked 48 is free on every order with no minimum, and courier orders placed by 2pm Monday to Friday leave the same working day.
What is the minimum order for boxes?
Single Wall Cardboard Boxes are sold per box with a minimum of 5 per size, so a small business can try a few sizes without buying a big bundle. Many products have volume pricing, so the price per item drops as you order more.
Should I use bubble wrap or kraft paper?
Small bubble wrap, with 10mm bubbles, is better for fragile items such as glass and ceramics. Kraft paper suits wrapping, filling gaps and products that are not easily broken, and some customers prefer paper inside their parcels. Many makers keep both.
Can I collect from your unit instead?
Yes. Click and collect from Unit 2, 50 Derby Street, Cheetham Hill is free and usually ready within 2 hours. We are open Monday to Friday 9:30am to 6pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm, and closed on Saturday.
