Plenty of businesses buy plain press seal bags and stick a printed label on every one. It feels like the cheap option, and at the very start it is. What it hides is the cost that never goes away: the time your staff spend peeling and applying a label to each bag, by hand, on every order, forever. Count that in, and printing the bag usually works out cheaper far sooner than most people expect.
This article shows how labelling and printing really cost out, and where the crossover sits. Plastpack (formerly Churchill & Coombes) manufactures and prints press seal bags in Sydney, so the logic here comes from making the product rather than reselling it.
The real cost of labelling a bag
A label looks cheap because people only count the sticker. The true cost of labelling a press seal bag has three parts: the plain bag, the label itself, and the labour to apply it. That last part is the one that gets missed, and it is usually the biggest.
Someone has to peel each label and place it straight on each bag, one at a time. That time is paid, it produces nothing, and it repeats on every single unit you ever pack. Add the rework when labels go on crooked, bubble or peel, the labels ruined in the process, and the printer, ink and backing stock behind them, and the cheap solution stops looking cheap. Crucially, none of that per-bag labour ever drops, no matter how many bags you do. It is a fixed cost per unit that follows you forever.
How printed press seal bags cost out differently
Printing works the opposite way. There is an upfront cost to set up a print run, the plates and the press setup, and that is why a printed order has a minimum quantity. But that setup is a one-time cost, spread across the whole run. Once it is done, the print itself adds very little to each bag, and it adds no labour at all. The bags arrive branded, aligned perfectly every time, with nothing for your team to apply.
So the two methods move in opposite directions as volume rises. Labelling’s cost per bag stays flat, because the labour is fixed per unit. Printing’s cost per bag falls, because the one setup is shared across more bags. Somewhere those two lines cross, and past that point printing is the cheaper way to get a branded bag.
Where the crossover happens
There is no single magic number, because the crossover depends on your job: how many print colours you need, how much your label plus its application labour actually costs per bag, your run size, and how often you reorder. What is consistent is that the crossover sits lower than most people assume, because labelling’s hidden labour is doing most of the damage.
The practical way to read it is this. Printed press seal bags have a minimum run, so the “order size where printing becomes cheaper” is tied to that minimum. If you are already hand-labelling press seal bags in any real volume, you are usually ordering at or above the level where a printed run makes sense, which means you are paying the labelling labour for no reason. The honest test is simple: if you label every bag, your team is spending time you could remove entirely. Send us your bag, quantity and colours and we will tell you where your crossover sits.
Minimum order for printed press seal bags
Minimums depend on whether you print onto a stock size or commission a custom size. Printing onto an existing stock press seal bag carries a lower minimum, because the bag already exists and only the print is being added. A fully custom-size press seal run has a higher minimum, around 10,000 units, because the bag is being made to your dimensions before it is printed.
Rather than guess, tell us the size and quantity you have in mind and we will confirm the minimum for your specific bag. For a fuller breakdown of what drives a printed order and how to place one, our guide on custom printed plastic bags pricing and minimum order covers it.
Beyond cost: what printing gives you that a label does not
Even where the numbers are close, printing brings things a label cannot. The branding is part of the bag, aligned identically on every unit, so there is no crooked-sticker look and no rework. Printed text sits flat and clean for logos, handling instructions or compliance wording, and the pack moves faster because there is no labelling step between filling and dispatch. On a shelf or in a customer’s hands, a printed custom printed press seal bag reads as a finished product rather than a plain bag with a sticker added.
When labelling still makes sense
To be fair, labelling is not always the wrong call. If you are running very small quantities, testing a new product before committing to a print run, changing your artwork often, or printing information that varies from pack to pack such as batch numbers or dates, a label or a hand-written panel is the more flexible option. For that last case, our write-on panel press seal bags give you a matte surface to write variable details straight onto the bag without a sticker at all.
The point is not that printing always wins. It is that if you are labelling every bag in volume, you have almost certainly passed the point where printing would cost less and save your team the work.
Ordering printed press seal bags
We print press seal bags in house with up to six colours, in Pantone or CMYK, on one or both sides, as part of our wider custom printed bags range. Because we extrude the film, print it and form the bags under one roof, the branding stays consistent between orders, and we hold around 50 tonnes of film on site so repeat runs dispatch quickly.
You can also set the size, thickness and seal to suit the product, and for businesses moving press seal and zip lock bags at volume, our guide on buying plastic bags wholesale covers setting up a reliable bulk supply. To find out where your crossover sits, contact the Plastpack team with your bag type, size, quantity and colours, and we will quote the printed run against what you are spending on labels now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it cheaper to print or label press seal bags?
It depends on volume. Labelling has a hidden per-bag labour cost that never drops, while printing has a one-time setup spread across the run. For any real volume, printing usually works out cheaper per finished bag and removes the labelling labour entirely.
What is the minimum order for printed press seal bags?
It depends on the size. Printing onto a stock press seal bag has a lower minimum, while a custom-size printed run has a higher minimum, around 10,000 units. Contact us with your size and quantity for the exact figure.
At what order size does printing become cheaper than labelling?
There is no single number, because it depends on your print colours, your label and labour cost per bag, and your run size. It is usually lower than people expect, because labelling’s labour recurs on every bag. We can work out the crossover for your specific job.
Can press seal bags be printed with my logo?
Yes. We print press seal bags in house with up to six colours in Pantone or CMYK, on one or both sides, so your logo, handling instructions or compliance text goes straight onto the bag.
When should I use labels or a write-on panel instead of printing?
Labels or a write-on panel suit very small runs, testing a new product, frequently changing artwork, or variable information like batch numbers and dates. For fixed branding at volume, printing is the more economical choice.