Buying a masterbatch with total colouring costs in mind means looking beyond the cost per kilo. Calculate your overall colouring costs to ensure your masterbatches deliver value for money for your business.
Challenging economic times bring a sharper focus on managing costs. When purchasing a masterbatch there are many things to consider, but something everyone seeks is value for money. Buyers are often tasked with finding the lowest cost per kilo, but this won’t necessarily deliver savings for your business. The addition (or let down) rate is equally as important when calculating your cost to colour.
A masterbatch manufacturer may devise formulations which offer the lowest possible cost per kilo, because this is often the customer’s key area of focus. This can be achieved with a formula that’s less highly loaded with pigment, but it’s a false economy if more masterbatch needs to be purchased in order to colour your material.
Our expert colourists formulate masterbatches with the lowest total costs in mind. Whilst this might not mean the lowest cost per kilo, a more concentrated formulation has the capability to colour more material, so less is needed. It’s the same principle as buying ‘double concentrate’ orange squash – a little goes a long way. Buying less masterbatch at a higher cost per kilo, can provide overall cost savings when compared to a cheaper formulation, which needs to be dosed at a much higher addition rate to achieve the same colour. Click below to see an illustration of this.
“Our experienced team deliver colour accuracy and cost-efficient solutions. We’ve often found customers will focus on the cost per kilo, meaning overall colouring costs may be overlooked. A masterbatch is typically dosed at anything between 1% and 5%, this variance can create a significant difference in overall colouring costs and this is magnified when you’re colouring large amounts of material. So it’s vital to consider the addition rate when calculating your colouring costs. We gain an understanding of a customer’s priorities for each match and work with them to formulate a colour which meets their requirements in a cost-efficient manner. We won’t simply engineer a weak formulation to achieve a low cost per kilo. Where possible, we also encourage customers to consolidate their orders and take advantage of our call-off service as this will offer them further savings.”
Nick Barber, Sales Director