Product packaging and labelling, from format to print-ready artwork

In short

• We choose the pack with the formula and the target cost of goods, source it through our supplier network and manage it with the production run.
• We draft and review the label against the rules of the product's pathway: TGO 116 for listed medicines, the Food Standards Code for foods, and the cosmetics information standard for cosmetics.
• Some medicines need child-resistant packaging under TGO 95, and a change of pack can mean a new stability study.
• Bottles, blisters, sachets, pouches, tubs and tubes, plus trial packs and a brand's own pack.

Packaging, carried with the product

The pack has to work as hard as the product inside it. From choosing the format to checking the label, we manage the detail, so the pack sells on the shelf, holds up in transit and meets every requirement that applies to it. Where a brand has a pack in mind that goes beyond the standard formats, we can help make it.

As with manufacturing, we don't make the packaging: we source it through our supplier network and manage it, with the same team that wrote the specification and built the claims evidence. So nothing is lost between the formula, the label and the production line. See managed manufacturing.

Where packaging sits in the Launch Engine

• Design, step 02. The format is chosen with the formula and the target cost of goods, in the formats your customers are already looking for: bottles and 7-day packs for capsules, tubs, pouches and sachets for powders, tubes for creams. See formulation.
• De-risk, step 03. The claims, the evidence and the label are settled to TGA, FSANZ and AICIS standards. The step ends with substantiated claims, compliant artwork and the listing. See medicine, food or cosmetic?
• Deliver, step 04. The specification, the packaging and the labelling are carried by one team through cGMP manufacturing partners matched to your format, volume and margin, then release testing, imports and freight through to your warehouse or 3PL.

What we manage

• The format. Bottles in glass, HDPE and recycled PET; blister packs, for products that need tamper evidence, dose convenience and shelf presence; sachets in stick, square or rectangular formats, for powders, single serves and subscription products; pouches in a range of sizes, materials and closures, printed in full colour; tubs; tubes for creams; and shrink wrapping, to your brand and retailer requirements.
• The components and their supply. Sourced to your specification and managed with the production run: a 100% recycled PET bottle for Vitable's hair capsule, the tubes for a kava pain relief cream, and the brand's own pouch for Nivari's powder.
• The label. Drafted and reviewed by us, from the design brief to print-ready artwork, with every claim, the ingredient list and every mandatory statement checked against the rules of the product's pathway. On Arxi's prenatal, our label review caught two errors before print.
• Barcodes. Barcodes for retail and direct-to-consumer channels, checked so every product scans and works in your systems before stock reaches the warehouse.
• Pack sizes and trial packs. A 60-count pack and a 7-day trial pack for an eye-health formula, both made in both production runs; a 7-day sample pack added to Arxi's preconception capsule for events and sampling; 60-count and 120-count bottles; a 14-day pouch.
• The pack in the stability program. TGA guidance says ongoing stability testing is of the finished packed product, and a different pack, such as a glass bottle, a particular plastic bottle, a blister or a laminated tube, may need its own study. So the pack is part of the stability protocol we design for the shelf life the label will carry. See the stability testing guide.

The rules a pack must meet

Which rules apply depends on the product's pathway, settled at the brief: a listed medicine, a food or a cosmetic. See medicine, food or cosmetic? The guides cover each pathway in full; the essentials:

Listed medicines

• The label follows TGO 116. Since 30 September 2026, labels of non-prescription medicines follow TGO 116; a medicine released for supply before 1 October 2031 can still follow TGO 92. The main label carries the medicine's name, each active ingredient and its quantity, the dosage form and the quantity in the pack. The label as a whole adds the batch number, the expiry date, storage conditions, the sponsor's name and contact details, declarations of any Schedule 1 substance, warning statements, directions for use and the indications. The Therapeutic Goods Regulations add the medicine's AUST L number on the main label. A QR code can't stand in for what the label must say, except where the Order allows it. Blister and strip packs and small containers have their own rules. More in the TGA listing guide.
• Some medicines need child-resistant packaging. Under TGO 95, a listed medicine needs it if it contains one of the substances the Order lists, in the strength or pack size it sets, or if its pack says or implies it is child-resistant. Among the substances a supplement might contain: iron compounds, in a pack with more than 250 mg of elemental iron, unless it is a divided preparation (one made in separate doses, such as tablets, capsules or sachets) in which the iron is combined with other actives and each dose has 5 mg or less of elemental iron; and potassium salts, in a pack with more than 4,000 mg of elemental potassium, unless it is a divided preparation with 40 mg or less in each dose, or the potassium is there as glucosamine sulfate potassium chloride complex. Individually wrapped powders are exempt. A blister pack generally counts when it seals each tablet or capsule on its own and isn't made of cellulose film or unlaminated paper.
• A pack presented as tamper-evident should say so. The TGA's code of practice for tamper-evident packaging isn't mandatory, but it applies to a pack presented as tamper-evident: at least one tamper-evident feature, two for two-piece capsules, and a statement on the pack describing it.
• Packaging and labelling are manufacturing steps. In Australia they need a TGA manufacturing licence unless exempt; overseas, GMP clearance, which is mandatory before listing. Every partner we use holds the licence or clearance its step needs. See TGA licences and GMP.

Foods

A packaged food for retail sale must bear a label with the name of the food, lot identification, the supplier's name and address, advisory and warning statements and declarations, the statement of ingredients, date marking, storage conditions and directions for use, nutrition information and characterising ingredients, plus the statements its own standard requires, such as Standard 2.9.4 for a sports food. An individual portion pack of 30 cm² or more that isn't sold separately needs its own label too, with the mandatory warning statements and declarations, such as allergens. Most packaged food sold at retail carries country of origin labelling. See the food pathway.

Cosmetics

Under the Consumer Goods (Cosmetics) Information Standard 2020, which the ACCC administers, every ingredient is listed on the container in descending order by volume or mass, with ingredients under 1% and colour additives allowed to follow in any order. If the container is too small to carry the list, it is displayed alongside the product. The standard doesn't apply to therapeutic goods, free samples or testers. See skincare and cosmetics.

Packs from our records

• Vitable: a TGA-listed hair capsule in a 100% recycled PET bottle, with the recycled bottle supply managed through to delivery, beside a serum on the cosmetics pathway.
• The Belly Solution: a travel gut-health powder in a 14-day pouch. We drafted and reviewed the label and ran a 36-month stability program.
• Nivari: a founder's first powder, packed into the brand's own pouch for a mid-August 2026 launch.
• An eye-health formula: a 60-count pack and a 7-day trial pack to drive trial, both pack sizes manufactured in both runs.
• Arxi's preconception capsule: a 7-day sample pack added later for events and sampling, with three production orders since 2024.
• Mother Daily: the nutrition panel and the label press proofs for one of our largest first production runs.
• Arxi's prenatal chewable: our label review caught two errors before print.
• A kava pain relief cream: a pack older users can open easily was part of the brief. We are managing manufacturing now, including the tube supply.
• Your Skin Scan: a single-ingredient tablet, 120 per bottle, with label compliance handled with the listing.

How packaging is priced

Packaging and labelling are managed within the stages of the Launch Engine. The development stages are fixed fees for a defined outcome, and manufacturing is priced per unit, so you know the investment before each stage begins.