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Gusseted Pouches, Stand Up Pouches and Custom Print: Picking the Right Format
Walk down any grocery aisle and you will see a dozen pouch shapes doing a dozen different jobs. Some stand up, some lie flat, some open out at the sides to hold more. Picking the wrong one rarely ruins a product, but it can make it look cheap on the shelf, waste space in the carton, or frustrate the person trying to reseal it.
Here is how we help customers choose, and what happens between your artwork and a finished pouch.
The main pouch formats
| Format | How it is built | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Stand up pouch | A folded base that opens out so the pouch stands on its own | Retail shelves, snacks, pet food, coffee |
| Gusseted pouch | Folds in the sides or bottom that expand as it fills | Larger volumes and heavier fills, such as coffee and flour |
| Three-side-seal pouch | A flat pouch sealed on three sides | Samples, single portions, spices |
| Vacuum pouch | A barrier pouch the air is drawn out of | Products that must be kept from oxygen and moisture |
| Spouted pouch | A pouch with a fitted spout and cap | Liquids, purees and pourable powders |
Most of them can be fitted with a resealable zipper, and with small extras such as an easy-open notch, a hole for hanging on a store peg, a see-through window or a one-way coffee valve. The full list is on our flexible pouches page.
When gusseted pouches are the better choice
Gusseted pouches have folds that let the pouch expand to hold more. A bottom gusset gives a flat base to stand on; side gussets let the pouch widen into an almost box-like shape as it fills. That extra room is why so much coffee is sold in them.
Pick a gusseted pouch when you need more volume than a standard stand up pouch gives, when a heavy fill would make a plain pouch bulge, or when you want a block shape that stacks neatly in a carton. Roasted coffee is the classic case: the beans give off gas for days after roasting, so coffee packs usually pair a gusset with a one-way valve that lets the gas escape while keeping air out.
What goes into custom print stand up pouches
Custom print stand up pouches turn the pack into your best piece of advertising, because the whole face of the pouch faces the shopper. A few decisions shape how they come out:
- Artwork: we print multi-colour to your artwork, so send final files with your brand colours called out.
- Finish: gloss for bright, punchy colour; matt for a quieter, premium look; soft-touch for a velvety feel in the hand.
- Clear areas: a window lets the product sell itself, but it has to be planned into the artwork, not added later.
- Copy and codes: leave room for ingredients, barcodes and date coding, which often go on the back or the base.
Happy with a pouch you already sell? Post one to us with your files, and we will take it apart layer by layer to tell you how closely it can be matched.
How flexible packaging is made
The manufacturing of flexible packaging happens at our partner plants, and it follows the same broad sequence almost everywhere:
- Printing: the artwork is printed onto a roll of film.
- Laminating: the printed film is bonded to one or more other layers, chosen for the barrier the product needs.
- Slitting: the wide laminated roll is cut down to the width of the finished pouch.
- Converting: the film is folded, sealed and cut into pouches, and zippers, spouts or valves are fitted.
Because the structure is chosen for your product and its shelf life rather than taken off a shelf, the questions at the start matter: what the product is, what it is sensitive to, and how long it needs to last. If you fill on your own form-fill-seal line, the same laminate can come to you as roll stock film instead of finished pouches.
Flexible packaging solutions, not just pouches
The best flexible packaging solutions start with the product, not the pouch. If you also buy the raw material in bulk, the same conversation can cover the bulk bags it arrives in; our guide to moving from bulk bags to stand up pouches walks through that journey.
Tell us what you are packing, how much goes in each pouch, how long it needs to last and how you fill it. Get in touch and we will suggest the format, the structure and the print to match.
Explore our packaging product range or visit the Transcontinental Packaging homepage to learn about our company and the industries we serve.
