North Lakes Copacking blends, fills, and packages powder products for brands who are done being an afterthought to copackers built around someone else's minimums. You talk to the person actually running your job — not an account rep relaying updates from a shared inbox.
The person who quotes your job is the person who runs it. No account-rep layer, no waiting on a callback.
A published starting rate and a full fee list below — not a black box you negotiate blind, run by run.
Built for the runs bigger copackers wave off as too small — 1 to up to 30,000 units a day, depending on the product.
Every job moves through the same stages — start wherever your product already is.
Your formula combined to spec by weight, batch-checked before it reaches the line.
Filled and sealed into sachets, stick packs, or zipper pouches at your fill weight and count.
Multi-packs, retail bundles, and display-ready cases, priced separately from the base run.
Palletized outbound, or ongoing pick, pack & ship to your customers. See Fulfillment below.
Limited runs up to 50,000 units per flavor, for brands ready to scale past our flat-rate tier. The equipment is on order — we're booking production windows against real demand, not building on a guess. Tell us you want in, and we'll hold you a spot as machines land.
Exact quotes depend on fill weight, packaging, and volume, but here's the real structure so you can pencil out a number before you talk to us.
| Volume | Price | What's Included |
|---|---|---|
| Sachets / stick packs, 1–8,000 units | $2,750 flat | Machine setup, blending labor, and the full production run. |
| Sachets / stick packs, 8,000+ units | Custom quote | Priced on volume, fill weight, and flavor count. |
| Zipper / stand-up pouches, any volume | Custom quote | Priced on volume, fill weight, and format. |
| Blending (per pound) | $0.50–$1.50 | Depends on formulation complexity — number of ingredients, particle size, and mix time. |
| Item | Fee | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Changeover — same package size, non-allergen, no full clean-out | $149 | Flavor switch within an existing run block. |
| Changeover — full clean-out, allergen clean-out, or package size change | $549 | Anything that requires a true reset of the line. |
| Rush order | Ask us | We'll do it when line time and materials allow. Fee depends on the ask. |
| Testing (allergen / micro, per test) | $110–$179 | Passed through at our cost — we don't mark up lab work. |
| Sample / proof-of-concept run | $525 | Send 10 lbs of ingredients and a small roll of film — we tumble-blend and run it in your actual packaging format. Not a full clean-down, so it's not sellable product, but it's real proof you're in the right size before a full order rides on it. |
Standard turnaround is 30 days from a signed quote to finished product. All ingredients, film, and COAs need to be on-site at least 7 days before your scheduled run — that's what keeps the line moving on the date we gave you.
Non-refundable fee to move your booked line time — it protects the slot we held for you and turned other work away to keep open.
Of the scheduled run, billed if you cancel within 2 weeks of your run date. Once a slot's booked, it's real cost either way.
Small brands don't need a massive warehouse. They need someone who gets orders out Monday through Friday, gets them right, and picks up the phone when something looks off. That's what we do. We're not built for a brand doing 10,000 orders a month — we're built for the 10 to 50 orders a day that don't want shipping games, fees marked up just to be marked back down, or a ticket number instead of a person. Flat fees. Real transparency. A team that answers.
| Service | Fee |
|---|---|
| Inbound receiving | No charge |
| Storage (finished goods or raw materials) | $25 / pallet / month |
| Pick, pack & ship (per order) | Custom quote |
| Palletized outbound (bulk retail/distributor) | Custom quote |
Active product liability coverage, full stop — ask us for documentation any time.
We'll sign an NDA before any details change hands. We don't discuss one client's product with another.
Run a $525 proof-of-concept first — the cheapest way to confirm your fit before a full order rides on it.
We built our own production rooms — positive-pressure, HEPA-filtered, sealed floors, dry by design — because that's what keeps a food product safe, not because an auditor told us to. We're a small shop, not a certified mega-plant, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. What you get instead: the person who built the room is the person running your batch, every time. Ask us for a walkthrough — we'd rather show you than tell you.
If a run doesn't meet spec because of an error on our part, we own it and make it right — that conversation happens honestly and directly with you, case by case. But let's be straight: a batch that fails QC isn't "reworked," it's redone. We'll tell you exactly what happened and what your options are, every time — no runaround.
Brands running 1,000–50,000 units per flavor — too small for shops with 35,000-unit minimums, too specific for a shared commercial kitchen.
Brands outgrowing home or garage production who need a real facility and dates that actually hold.
Brands who've been burned by a bigger copacker's rigid scheduling, hidden fees, or opaque pricing — we've been that customer too.
Brands testing a new SKU or flavor who want a real sample run before committing to a full production order.
Brands who want production and fulfillment from one partner instead of stitching together separate vendors.
Brands doing 10–50 orders a day who need a fulfillment partner that isn't built around someone doing 10,000 a month.
"I've been through the runaround you're dealing with right now. Bigger copackers don't lose sleep over your production date. I do."
North Lakes Copacking is based in Minnesota and run by its owner, day to day — not a regional sales rep, not a customer success platform. We built this specifically for the brand doing thousands of units a flavor: too big for a shared kitchen, too small for the copackers that want 35,000 units before they'll return your call.
We're actively building out capacity — a vertical (VFFS) line and a dedicated stick pack line are on order for limited runs up to 50,000 units per flavor — and taking on new production and fulfillment clients now.
$2,750 flat covers 1–8,000 sachets or stick packs — machine setup, blending, and the full run. Larger volumes and zipper pouches are custom quoted on volume, fill weight, and format.
That's the default, and usually the better deal for you — you keep your supplier relationships. If you'd rather we source materials, we can; just tell us on the quote form.
Once you sign a quote, your production date is booked and held for you. Materials need to be on-site at least 7 days before your run. Moving your booked slot is a 25% non-refundable fee; canceling within 2 weeks of your run date is 50% of the scheduled run. Once a slot's booked, it's real cost whether product runs through it or not.
Sachets, stick packs, and zipper pouches today, plus hand-fill of gusset bags for small batches with no machine minimum. A vertical (VFFS) line and a dedicated stick pack line are on order for limited runs up to 50,000 units per flavor — now booking.
We built our production rooms around cGMP principles — positive-pressure, HEPA-filtered, sealed floors, dry by design — but we're a small shop, not a certified mega-plant, and we won't claim a certification we don't hold. Ask us for a walkthrough any time.
Send us your product type, fill weight, units per flavor, packaging, and timeline, and we'll turn around a real quote fast. Standard production turnaround is 30 days from a signed quote to finished product.
Who we're talking to
Format, fill weight, formula
Units, allergens, when you need it