My Supplier Charges More for 10 Kg Packs than 25 Kg Cartons — At What Monthly Production Volume Does the Larger Pack Become Worthwhile?

Almost as soon as you can use the carton before it ages — the price maths is the easy part

Your supplier charges more per kilo for 10 kg packs than for 25 kg cartons. You want the monthly production volume at which the carton becomes worthwhile. The title gives no prices, so this page uses labelled example figures you replace: ₹5,000.00 for a 10 kg pack (₹500.00 a kilo) and ₹11,875.00 for a 25 kg carton (₹475.00 a kilo) — a ₹25.00 gap. The carton costs you extra stock on the shelf: on average you hold half a carton (12.5 kg) instead of half a pack (5 kg), so 7.5 kg more. At ₹475.00 a kilo and an example 18% a year cost of money, carrying that costs ₹53.44 a month.

The carton saves ₹25.00 on every kilo you use. So on price alone it pays from about 2.1 kg a month — roughly 11 candles of 200 g at 8%. That is so low that price is almost never the deciding factor. The real threshold is the time it takes to use the carton. If you only want an opened carton of wax in your store-room for, say, three months (an example storage window you set), you need to use at least 8.3 kg a month — about 44 candles — for the carton to make sense. Below that, the saving is real but the wax sits too long. How long is too long depends on your store-room; storing 100 kg through an Indian summer covers the storage conditions to confirm first.

So the honest answer: take the carton once you use more than about 8 kg a month, provided the wax is approved, you can spare the cash and you can store it cool and dry. At 25 kg a month the carton saves ₹7,500.00 a year on these example prices. On CSI's own listed packs the question changes shape — there is no carton, and the pack steps sit much lower down, at 5 kg.

The threshold table: monthly volume against the carton

Here is the reader's example run across monthly volumes. Candles are 200 g at 8% (184 g of wax) with a 4% pour and test allowance (a working assumption). "Months to use" is how long one 25 kg carton lasts. The carrying cost is the same at every volume because the extra stock is always half a carton less half a pack.

Every row shows a positive net, even at 3 kg a month — and in per-candle terms the ₹25.00 gap is only ₹4.60 on a 200 g candle at 8%, as the ₹20, ₹50 or ₹100 a kilo post explains. The net is still positive — the ₹25.00 gap is large against the carrying cost. What changes down the table is the time column. At 3 kg a month a carton lasts more than eight months; at 5 kg, five months. Those are the rows where the saving is technically there and practically unwise: the wax ages, the bag gets opened and closed dozens of times, and any problem with the lot affects half a year of candles. From about 8 kg a month the carton is used inside the example window and the decision becomes easy.

CSI's real ladders: where a bigger bag actually lowers the price

CSI does not list a 25 kg carton. The CSI 464 product page mentions a 25 kg format that is not a listed size — ask on WhatsApp whether 25 kg is available before planning around it; it is not priced here. What is listed is a ladder of bags from 500 g to 10 kg (Natural Soy Pearl to 50 kg). Computed from the listed prices, the per-kilo picture is below. The last column shows each pack's per-kilo price against the same wax's 1 kg bag.

Four facts fall out of that table. Chunks never gets cheaper per kilo as the bag grows — its lowest rate is actually the 500 g bag at ₹598.00 — and the 10 kg bag at ₹599.90 is fractionally dearer than the 1 kg at ₹599.00, so two 5 kg bags (₹5,990.00) cost ₹9.00 less than one 10 kg bag (₹5,999.00). CSI 464 is ₹507.40 a kilo at 1, 5 and 10 kg; only its 500 g bag is dearer (₹520.00 a kilo). CSI 468 steps from ₹650.00 to ₹637.00 a kilo at 5 kg — 2.0%, worth ₹65.00 on a 5 kg bag or ₹2.39 a candle. Natural Soy Pearl steps from ₹450.00 to ₹424.80 at 5 kg — 5.6%, worth ₹126.00 on 5 kg or ₹4.64 a candle — and then stays flat through 10 kg and 50 kg.

So on CSI's catalogue the threshold is about the 5 kg bag, and only for two waxes. With the same 3-month example storage window, a 5 kg bag is worth buying once you use at least 1.7 kg a month — about 9 candles. Above 5 kg, buy whatever size is convenient to handle and store: 10 kg bags save handling, not money. For larger quantities ask on WhatsApp; no volume discount figure is published.

Moving up a pack size means a new lot: check it

A larger pack is usually a different production lot from the small bags you approved the wax with. CSI publishes no lot numbers, certificates of analysis or batch-consistency data, so the check is yours. Keep a retained sample from your last approved small bag. When the first larger bag arrives, pour 3 candles from the retained sample (the control) and 3 from the new bag, with the same Jasmine Fragrance Oil at 8% (16 g oil + 184 g wax), Eco Thin C1 wick and White Matte jar. It takes 580 g of each wax from stock.

The priced kits

The lot check uses wax you already hold, so its only purchases are oil, wicks and jars: ₹1,300.00 for 1 × 100 g + 1 × 15 g of Jasmine, 1 × 10 Eco Thin C1 wicks and 2 packs of White Matte jars. If you have not yet chosen between the two CSI waxes that do have a pack step, the side-by-side kit below runs four candles of each against each other first.

Natural Soy Pearl has no fragrance ceiling, melt point or pour temperature published, so 8% is a labelled test load; CSI 468's product page states up to 13%, a melting point of 50–53°C and pour at 58–60°C. Neither is claimed better than the other — the side-by-side decides for your jar and oil.

The decision rule

For a maker who uses about 15 kg a month and is choosing among CSI's listed packs, the concrete purchase is: Natural Soy Pearl as one 10 kg bag plus one 5 kg bag (₹6,372.00) if it is your approved wax, or CSI 468 as three 5 kg bags (₹9,555.00). Either way, run the ₹1,300.00 lot check on the first larger bag. If your current supplier offers a genuine 25 kg carton, apply the threshold table with their real prices — and still check the first carton against your retained sample. Landed cost per kilo adds shipping to the same comparison, and cost per saleable candle is where the pack rate finally lands.

Related purchase-side questions

Pack size is one purchase-side cost. Tying up cash in 100 kg at 25 kg a month handles multi-month buys, landed cost after shipping adds delivery, and ₹20, ₹50 or ₹100 a kilo on 100 kg shows what a price gap means per candle. The true commercial cost formula combines them. Outside the cluster, moving from 5 kg packs to 25 kg cartons at 300 candles a month and checking your first 25 kg carton go further.

Frequently asked questions