Planning a variety pack — the SKU math that keeps you from paying to store leftovers.

Variety packs sell. A sampler box lets a new customer try three flavors without committing to a 30-count of one, and on Amazon it's often the listing that gets someone to try you at all. But variety packs are also where brands most often end up with a pallet of leftover singles nobody planned for.

The fix is boring: do the SKU math before you order ingredients and film. Here's how.

Step 1: Define every pack

Write down each pack or kit you're building, how many units of each SKU go in it, and how many of each pack you want. Be literal — "a variety pack" isn't a spec; "6-count sampler: 2 Lemon Lime, 2 Berry, 2 Orange" is.

A lot of brands run variety packs and single-flavor packs off the same run, so list those too. Here's the example we'll use:

Step 2: Total the units for each SKU

For each flavor, multiply units-per-pack by packs built, then add across every pack it appears in:

This is the number that matters for production. Notice how lopsided it is: the single-flavor pack makes Lemon Lime 3.5× the volume of the other two. If you'd ordered "2,200 of each flavor" because it felt even, you'd have 1,000 extra Berry and Orange and be 2,000 short on Lemon Lime.

Step 3: Add your yield buffer — to materials, not to packs

Some product and film is lost on every run: startup, calibration, seal rejects, and clean-out between flavors. We tell brands to order ingredients and film at about 110% of finished units (the full breakdown is in our yield loss guide).

For the example, that's materials for roughly 4,620 Lemon Lime, 1,320 Berry, and 1,320 Orange. The buffer goes on your ingredient and film orders — keep the pack counts at what you actually want to sell.

Step 4: Round to full cases

Packs go into master shipper cases. Build in multiples of your case count and every case ships full — no partial case of samplers sitting on a shelf.

If your sampler packs 12 to a case, 600 samplers is exactly 50 cases. If you'd picked 610, you'd have 50 cases and 10 loose packs. Small thing; it saves real handling time on every order.

Step 5: Decide now what happens to leftovers

Even with good math, a few hundred extra singles are normal — that's what a yield buffer is for. Decide before the run, not after:

• Sell them as singles. Cheapest option if you have a single-serve listing.
• Hold them for the next kit build. Fine if that build is coming soon.
• Ship them back to you.

Anything stored at North Lakes after the run is $45 per pallet per month. We consolidate as much as we can, so a few cases of singles share a pallet instead of taking up one each — but a pallet nobody planned for still adds up over six months.

Do the SKU math before you order film. It's the cheapest step in the whole run.

Step 6: Spell out the pack-out

The last piece is how the packs physically come together. Tell your co-packer:

• The secondary container — display carton, mailer box, poly bag.
• How it closes — tuck flap, tape, tamper seal.
• Packs per master shipper, and what the case label shows.
• Pallet build — or nothing, if we're doing your fulfillment and the packs never leave our building on a pallet. (See Ti-Hi explained if a retailer gave you pallet specs.)

Kitting and assembly are priced separately from the base run and quoted on your pack design — the more pieces and the more complex the box, the more hand time it takes.