Buying guide · Private label
Private label and OEM preserved flowers — what we can and cannot do
VivaPetal runs three private-label routes — printed packaging, laser engraving on a wooden or acrylic base, and neutral packing — and quotes each per file, with the minimum set by the print or engraving file rather than the flower. The rest of the page is arranged the other way round: what each route needs from you before it can be quoted, and the part of the product that branding does not touch.
The three routes to a branded order
Private label in this trade covers three distinct operations, and buyers often ask for one while meaning another. Separating them is the fastest way to get a quotation that answers the right question.
Two of the three are additive and one is subtractive. Packaging and engraving are processes added at the end of the chain; neutral packing removes something that would otherwise be there. All three are arranged per order, with quantities and lead times confirmed on the quotation.
What none of them does is alter the flower — which is where most private-label expectations part company with what is possible.
Printed boxes and sleeves to your artwork
A printed box replaces the stock box entirely; a printed sleeve wraps one. The sleeve is cheaper and more forgiving, because the base box stays standard and only the outer layer is new — and artwork can change between runs without rebuilding the pack.
What we need is artwork and a decision about the dieline, the flat cutting pattern the box is built from. Either you send the one your printer works to, or you tell us the format and we supply it for the box being quoted — quicker on a first order, and it removes a round of emails about millimetres.
Settle one point early: printed colour and dyed colour are different systems. A sleeve printed to a brand colour and a rose dyed to the same reference will not read identically under the same light — one is ink on board, the other pigment in a petal. If box and flower sit together, approve them together; the custom dyeing guide explains why only a physical sample is reliable on the flower side. Print minimums depend on format, colours and finishing, and are confirmed per file.
Laser engraving on wooden and acrylic bases
Engraving belongs on the part of a piece that gets handled: the base under a glass dome, the plinth beneath a box arrangement, the lid of a presentation case. Choose it when the mark has to survive being picked up, wiped and set down.
The reason is mechanical. Print sits on a surface and wears from the top down, so a logo on a handled base is the first thing to disappear. Engraving fuses material below the surface, so the mark is part of the object rather than a layer on it.
The file matters more than in print. Engraving is drawn with a line rather than reproduced as an image, so we work from vector artwork; fine detail and small text fill in at the size a base allows, and we say so before anything is cut. Send the base shape and the area the mark should occupy. Engraving is quoted per base and per file, and the minimum follows the base rather than the artwork.
Neutral, unbranded packing
Neutral packing is for the buyer whose name has to be the only one on the goods: a distributor supplying retailers, a brand building a range, an importer whose customers would otherwise look up the source. Plain cartons, no supplier stickers, no insert carrying our details, no branded tape.
Be precise about what it does not do. Neutral packing removes our name from the product and its immediate packaging; it does not remove the marks transport and customs require, and those differ by destination — some markets are strict about origin marking, others less so. Tell us where the shipment is going and we will say what has to stay.
One second-order point: a plain carton is anonymous to your own warehouse too. If you hold several references in neutral packing, label them on arrival — the storing and re-shipping guide covers what to check when cartons land. Neutral packing is arranged at order stage, because it changes how goods are packed rather than what is in them.
What private label does not change
Branding is the last process in the chain, and everything that decides how a piece looks after a year was settled long before. Material, grade, colour reference and packing format are agreed at specification stage; the box arrives afterwards and cannot reach back into any of them.
Grade is the one that catches buyers out. A Grade B head in a beautiful printed box is still a Grade B head, and if the piece is open — a dome, an uncovered arrangement — the petal edge is what a customer examines first. Our grades are A and B, set out in the guide to choosing grades, and the split on your order is confirmed at enquiry. The stock palette behind that choice is 36+ shades on rose heads, 30+ on hydrangea and 16+ on moss as of October 2026, and none of those numbers move because a box is printed.
There is a commercial reading of the point: a packaging budget is a fixed sum, and the more of it that goes into the box, the less of the unit cost is left for what is inside. When two quotations differ sharply on a branded piece, the difference is usually not the printing. Colour is the other half — a range that repeats across seasons needs a retained physical reference, because natural material moves a shade or two between harvests and a printed sleeve will not.
Documents, terms and what to send with the artwork
A commercial invoice and an itemised packing list are issued as standard. Anything further — a declaration, a certificate, a statement for a customs regime — is confirmed per destination: tell us what your market asks for and you get a direct answer, including no. The documents section lists what we can put on paper.
Delivery is quoted EXW (Kunming) as the default, with FOB where you have a forwarder at the port and DAP as the last option. Branding is applied by the same partners who stabilise, dye and pack, so the artwork conversation and the material conversation run through one channel — the sourcing guide explains that split.
The most efficient enquiry carries four things: the artwork or engraving file, the base shape if there is one, the reference list with quantities, and your date. With those we can answer on feasibility, on what the file reproduces and on the quantity the printer needs, in one reply. If you are still choosing formats, the product range shows what each piece is built from, and a sample box lets you hold the base before committing to a print run.
Common questions
Private label questions buyers ask
No. Colour on a preserved flower is dye taken into the petal, not ink sitting on it, and printing a mark onto a petal is not something we offer. What we can do is dye to a reference, a brand colour included, with the sample approved by you before production. The mark itself goes on the packaging or the base.
Either way works. If your printer has a dieline, send it and the artwork is built to that shape. If not, tell us the format and we will supply the dieline for the box being quoted, which usually saves correspondence on dimensions. What we need in both cases is artwork at reproduction quality.
Yes, and it is set by the file rather than by the flower: a printed box, a printed sleeve and an engraved base each carry their own minimum, confirmed with your quotation. Send the artwork and the quantity you have in mind and the answer will be specific to that combination rather than a generic range.
It removes our name from the product and its packaging, which is what most buyers need. It does not override transport and customs requirements — origin marking rules differ by market and some are stricter than others. Tell us the destination and we will say exactly what has to remain on the carton.
Next step
Send the artwork — we will say what the file supports
Artwork or engraving file, the base shape if there is one, the reference list with quantities, and your date. You get a direct answer on what reproduces and which minimum applies.