Made in Tauranga since 1997
We take cardboard weirdly seriously. So you don't have to.
Kraft boxes, made in Tauranga since 1997. Buy stock sizes online today, or we will make one to fit whatever you sell. You do not need to know a single packaging term to order.
What are you packing?
Pick the thing you sell and we will point you at the box that fits it.
Apparel
Flat, roomy mailers that survive the courier network.
Shop apparel boxes
Candles and glassware
Deeper boxes with room for protective fill around the fragile bit.
Shop candle boxes
Skincare and cosmetics
Small, tidy boxes that make an unboxing feel deliberate.
Shop skincare boxes
Food and baking
Trays and lidded boxes for anything that needs to arrive intact.
Shop food boxes
Flowers
Tall carry boxes built so bouquets arrive standing up.
Shop florist boxes
Moving house
Big, strong, boring in the best possible way.
Shop moving cartonsWhat size do you need?
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Measure the thing, not the box
Every size on this site is the internal space, in millimetres, as length x width x height. Measure your product at its widest points and match it to that.
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Leave yourself 10mm
Add about 10mm on each side for tissue, fill or a card. Packing something fragile? Make it 20mm.
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Stuck between two sizes? Go up
A slightly big box can be packed out. A slightly small box is firewood.
CAD AND DIE LINE DESIGN
Nothing off the shelf fits? We will draw one that does.
Send us the product, or the measurements, and our CAD team draws a die line built around it. You get a flat sample cut on the plotter to fold up and test with the actual thing before we make a single box.
Odd shapes, inserts, handles, windows, partitions. If it can be drawn in cardboard, it can be cut here.
The fill we sell is plastic free. Including the stuff we shred ourselves.
See all packaging-
Woodwool
See woodwoolFine wood shavings that hold your product still and look the part. Made from untreated, de-barked, plantation grown Radiata Pine. Untreated, unbleached, and it composts.
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Shredded cardboard
See shredded cardboardMade here on site with our own shredder, out of our own offcuts. A straight swap for bubble wrap, and your customer can put it in the recycling bin.
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Single face roll
See single face rollSmooth one side, corrugated the other, on a continuous roll. Cut it to length and wrap it around anything an awkward shape.
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Layer boards
See layer boardsFlat sheets that sit between layers so nothing crushes what is underneath it. Four board thicknesses, cut to your size.
Boxes we have made for people like you
Gin, honey, laptops, dog treats, gaming gear. If it fits in a box, we have probably made the box.
PICK, PACK AND DISPATCH
Or skip the packing table entirely.
We do not just make the box. We can hold your stock, pick the orders, pack them into it and send them out the door for you.
Useful if your spare room has quietly become a warehouse, or if packing orders is eating the hours you should be spending on the actual business. Talk to us about what that would look like for you.
How custom boxes work
Start a custom job-
1. Tell us what you are packing
Pick a stock box online, or send us the product and we will work out what fits.
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2. We quote it properly
A real price with quantities and timings. No mystery pricing, no pressure.
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3. You approve a proof
For printed boxes you see exactly how it will look before we make a single one.
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4. We make it and send it
Made in Tauranga, shipped flat packed anywhere in New Zealand.
Made in Tauranga
The boxes come from down the road, not down the ocean.
Plenty of packaging sold in New Zealand is made offshore, containerised and shipped in. That works fine until you need a reorder in a hurry, or you need five hundred instead of fifty thousand.
Boxes made in Tauranga
- Reorder in days, not a twelve week sailing.
- No import duty, no customs broker, no tariff surprises.
- Order five hundred. Or fifty. No container sized minimum.
- Freight is a courier across New Zealand, not a shipping line.
- Something wrong? Ring Tauranga and a person sorts it that day.
- See a real sample before you commit to a run.
Boxes made offshore
- Lead times measured in months, and the ship does not wait for you.
- Duties, exchange rates and tariffs that move after you have quoted your customer.
- Minimum orders that mean a pallet of boxes in your garage.
- Port delays, container costs and no way to chase them.
- A problem becomes an email thread across several time zones.
- Approve it off a screen and hope the real thing matches.
Nothing against the big offshore mills. They are just not much help on a Tuesday.
Since 1997. Still weirdly into boxes.
Nearly three decades of box making, all from the factory here in Tauranga. Long enough that we usually know which box you need before you have finished describing it.
Owners Allan and Wendy got here by way of a video store, two Four Squares, a book shop and eleven years running apartments on the Gold Coast. Cardboard is the one that stuck.
What will it cost?
Stock die-cut cartons are sold in bundles of 25 and priced on the product page, so you can see the cost before you speak to anyone. Moving cartons and protective packaging are sold in bundles too, and we quote those directly.
Every price on this site excludes GST. GST is added at checkout. Ordering a lot? Ask us about volume pricing, because there usually is some.
Questions people actually ask
I have no idea what box I need
Very normal. Tell us what you are packing and roughly how many you send a month, and we will tell you which box to buy. Call 07 541 0011 or email office@customcartons.co.nz.
Is there a minimum order?
Not for stock cartons. They are sold in bundles and you can buy a single bundle. Custom made and custom printed boxes do have minimums, which we will tell you before you commit.
How fast is delivery?
Stock cartons ship from our Tauranga factory and we confirm timing when you order. Custom jobs depend on the print and the run size, and we confirm that timeline in writing before production starts.
Is it actually recyclable?
Yes. Our cartons are kraft board and kerbside recyclable in New Zealand. Our protective fill is made from our own offcuts, so the waste cardboard goes back into the boxes.
Can I get a sample first?
For custom work, yes. We would rather you hold the thing than guess from a screen. Ask us when you enquire.
Pick a box. Make it yours. Carry on.
Buy a stock carton online, or talk to us about a box made for your product. Either way you are talking to the people who actually make it.