Sticker/decal production cost

[500orange]

Hello, we are a high-volume sublimation print shop expanding into custom stickers soon. I am having trouble calculating how much a sticker will really cost us. Could you guys help me out a bit?

The unknown to me is:
- how much time it takes to setup laminator, load the roll...
- how much time it takes to take out thru cut stickers
- how much waste of vinyl is created before starting the printing and after finishing it
- what is the % of machine defects on printer and on cutter
- what is the % of vinyl and laminate defects
- any other unforeseeable costs

 

[victor bogdanov]

All of this depends on a lot of factors but you can easily be under $1 per sqft materials/ink cost and sell that for $15+/sq ft for lower quantities (sticker mule prices for qty of 100) all the way down to $3/sq ft or lower for quantities of 10k , 100k etc

Think of it in terms of rolls, how much does the roll of material cost, how long to print and cut it.


As an example you can take a 60" x 150 ft roll of vinyl and get about 10k 3" x 3" stickers out of it. The rolls costs $200 , 1 hr print time (gotta have the right printer for this speed), 4+ hours cut time (depends on shape etc)

So you have 10,000 that you used $200 vinyl, $100 ink and 5+ hrs of equipment time for. Also will take a few hours of packaging etc. Lets charge $100 for each of those hours and that puts $300 material cost and $500 machine time $300 labor. So you are at 11 cents per sticker making a good profit on that machine time and labor. 11 cents for 3 x 3 stickers qty 10k is a very competitive/wholesale price for stickers. Could go for more retail

 

[500orange]

All of this depends on a lot of factors but you can easily be under $1 per sqft materials/ink cost and sell that for $15+/sq ft for lower quantities (sticker mule prices for qty of 100) all the way down to $3/sq ft or lower for quantities of 10k , 100k etc

Think of it in terms of rolls, how much does the roll of material cost, how long to print and cut it.


As an example you can take a 60" x 150 ft roll of vinyl and get about 10k 3" x 3" stickers out of it. The rolls costs $200 , 1 hr print time (gotta have the right printer for this speed), 4+ hours cut time (depends on shape etc)

So you have 10,000 that you used $200 vinyl, $100 ink and 5+ hrs of equipment time for. Also will take a few hours of packaging etc. Lets charge $100 for each of those hours and that puts $300 material cost and $500 machine time $300 labor. So you are at 11 cents per sticker making a good profit on that machine time and labor. 11 cents for 3 x 3 stickers qty 10k is a very competitive/wholesale price for stickers. Could go for more retail

Hey, thanks for the reply. Agreed about the material and machine costs. Those are easy to calculate and speeds of print/cut are known. What I struggle with is knowing how much labour is needed per sticker - without the packing.

Somebody needs to take roll from printer and insert it into laminator. Then put it into cutter. Then take out stickers… Those are the unknown I want to understand before we invest heavy into this. I know it comes down to optimisation but a ball park would be nice.

Any experience with that?

 

[victor bogdanov]

Hey, thanks for the reply. Agreed about the material and machine costs. Those are easy to calculate and speeds of print/cut are known. What I struggle with is knowing how much labour is needed per sticker - without the packing.

Somebody needs to take roll from printer and insert it into laminator. Then put it into cutter. Then take out stickers… Those are the unknown I want to understand before we invest heavy into this. I know it comes down to optimisation but a ball park would be nice.

Any experience with that?

Load printer, laminator cutter, I can do in under 10 minutes per roll.

Ideally you want to have enough work where you can do whole rolls at a time, way more efficient than doing this 10 min labor to load printer, laminator, cutter for 50 sticker order. I'll even wait until I have a full rolls worth of printing before printing as efficiency drops way off printing less than a full roll

It takes far longer to remove the stickers/pack them up after cutting, this is the most labor intensive step. File prep, adding cut lines etc is also pretty labor intensive unless you invest into some automation to make easier.

 

[Snydo]

When you say "thru cut" do you mean kiss cut or die cut? That will make a MASSIVE difference in cutting time, waste, and blade wear....depending on what type of cutter you use.

 

[somcalmetim]

Most of those variables will depend on you, the skill of your team, the jobs you have to print and the deadlines for the jobs...
Many here have experience with all those things but if your team is just learning the info won't help you much or give unrealistic goals based on different machinery, job sizing and crew skill/experience levels.
It depends on how fast your team does those thing on your machinery, there is no substitute for timing your own test jobs in your own shop.