Value-led and own-label retailers such as Lidl and Aldi have redefined the rules of shelf efficiency and promotion cycles, accelerating the rise of re-packing and co-packing as essential components of modern supply chain strategy.
James Ross Consulting has worked with major consumer goods producers across Europe and North America to rethink how re-pack and co-pack operations can be integrated into core business functions – improving agility, efficiency, and cost control across the end-to-end value chain.
Traditionally, re-pack and co-pack activities were small-scale, often handled by local sales or marketing teams to support seasonal or promotional launches. They were considered a marketing cost – peripheral to the main production process.
However, as modern retail has shifted toward mixed cases, display-ready packs, and rapid product rotations, these once-marginal operations have become mainstream. Many consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers now re-pack up to 40% of their total product volume to meet retailer requirements.
This represents a fundamental shift: re-pack is no longer an afterthought, but a critical capability in maintaining competitiveness and customer relationships.
The growing reliance on re-packing brought three main challenges for global brand manufacturers:
Inefficiency and fragmentation – Local re-pack arrangements lacked consistency, leading to duplicated effort, variable costs, and inconsistent quality.
Limited scalability – Traditional manual processes could not meet the volume and speed demanded by value retailers.
Misalignment with supply chain logic – Re-packing contradicted established manufacturing principles of mass efficiency, forcing companies to reconcile flexibility with throughput.
The challenge for James Ross Consulting was to help clients redefine re-pack and co-pack as structured, scalable, and efficient processes, rather than ad-hoc extensions of marketing activity.
James Ross Consulting engaged with clients across Europe and North America to analyse the re-pack and co-pack landscape from an end-to-end perspective.
We began by mapping current re-pack activities – locations, workflows, labour models, and cost structures. This revealed wide variation between markets and brands, with significant opportunities to consolidate operations and create standardized frameworks.
Our consultants assessed packaging designs and donor pack configurations to determine how they influenced downstream re-packing efficiency. In many cases, we identified that minor adjustments to primary or secondary packaging could drastically reduce re-pack handling and waste.
Working alongside client engineering and operations teams, we designed modular pack formats that could accommodate different product combinations and promotional layouts while supporting partial automation.
This approach allowed brands to maintain flexibility without losing the benefits of scale.
Across multiple projects, James Ross Consulting helped clients translate analysis into practical improvements:
Standardized pack sizes and donor case formats to simplify re-pack planning and procurement.
Optimized workflows that reduced manual labour and improved line throughput.
Enhanced use of automation for bulk unpacking, product collation, and display assembly.
Refined management structures to give re-pack and co-pack operations clear ownership and integration with wider supply chain functions.
In some instances, we also introduced semi-finished product supply models – enabling bulk goods to be shipped closer to market and re-packed regionally, reducing inventory risk and transport costs.
These initiatives not only improved efficiency but also delivered sustainability benefits through reduced packaging waste, lower transport miles, and greater control over material reuse.
The work delivered meaningful outcomes across operations and strategy:
Improved efficiency and scalability across re-pack and co-pack facilities, turning fragmented local activities into unified global processes.
Reduced waste and handling time, achieved through better pack design and standardized procedures.
Enhanced responsiveness to retailer needs, enabling faster deployment of promotional and mixed-case SKUs.
Lower costs and stronger governance, supported by clearer data visibility and management control.
Secondary sustainability gains, including reduced corrugate use, lower transport waste, and compliance alignment for hazardous and specialty goods.
More broadly, the projects helped clients view re-pack not as a cost burden, but as a strategic capability – a form of agile inventory management that supports both commercial and operational objectives.
As retail channels evolve, agility is becoming as important as efficiency. Through end-to-end analysis and practical redesign, James Ross Consulting is helping global CPG companies adapt to this new reality – creating flexible re-pack and co-pack systems that balance speed, cost, and sustainability across international supply chains.
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