Choosing corrugated packaging
Most packaging problems are specification problems: a box that arrives crushed was usually the wrong board grade, not badly made. This guide explains how corrugated board is constructed, what the flute grades actually do, and how to match a box style to what you are shipping.
How corrugated board is built
Corrugated board is not cardboard. It is a sandwich: a fluted inner layer glued between flat outer layers called liners. The fluting is what does the work — the arches act as columns that carry vertical load, and the air gaps give cushioning and insulation.
The liner and fluting are both paper, specified by weight in grams per square metre. Mega Paper produces recycled paper from 100 gsm to 240 gsm for exactly this purpose, and Mega Pack converts it into board. Heavier paper gives a stronger box; the design question is how much strength the contents and the stacking pattern actually require.
Single wall, double wall and flute grades
Single-wall board has one layer of fluting between two liners and suits most retail and light logistics work. Double-wall board has two fluted layers and three liners, and is used where stacking height, load weight or transit distance demands it — export produce and heavy industrial goods, typically.
Flute grade describes the size and frequency of the arches. Coarser flutes give more vertical compression strength and cushioning; finer flutes give a smoother surface for high-quality printing and fold more cleanly on small boxes. A box that must stack six high in a cold store and a box that must carry a photographic print of your brand are not asking for the same board.
Matching box style to contents
Box style matters as much as board grade. The five styles below cover most of what moves through East African supply chains.
- Vegetable Boxes
- Engineered for transporting fresh produce while maintaining excellent stacking strength, ventilation and durability throughout the supply chain.
- Avocado Boxes
- Purpose-built for delicate fruit with reinforced walls and optimised ventilation, ensuring produce arrives intact from farm to market.
- Flower Boxes
- Telescopic designs engineered for floriculture export, providing superior protection and stacking strength for long-distance transport.
- Pizza Boxes
- Food-safe corrugated boxes designed for heat retention, grease resistance and reliable delivery across food service operations.
- Regular Slotted Cases
- Versatile corrugated cases for commercial logistics and warehousing, offering dependable strength for a wide range of applications.
Why produce and flower boxes are different
Fresh produce and cut flowers both travel refrigerated, and refrigeration is hard on corrugated board: moisture migrates into the paper and softens it, and a box that tested strong in a dry warehouse can fail in a cold store. Boxes for these applications need ventilation for airflow, and board specified with the humid environment in mind.
Flower boxes add a further requirement. They are telescopic — a separate lid slides over the base rather than folding shut — which creates a double wall at the overlap for stacking strength in an aircraft hold, and lets one box size accommodate a range of stem lengths.
Printing and customisation
Custom printing is available across the Mega Pack range, as are custom internal dimensions. Getting internal dimensions right is worth the effort: a box even slightly oversized lets contents shift in transit, and a box slightly undersized bulges and loses stacking strength at exactly the point where it is carrying the most load.
Industries served
Mega Pack supplies corrugated packaging to customers across East Africa in the following sectors.
- FMCG
- Flower farms
- Clothing and garments
- Export Processing Zones (EPZs)
- Matchboxes
- Vegetable growers and exporters
- Avocado growers and exporters
See the full range at Mega Pack, or read how the paper is made at Mega Paper.