Biz Idea Pakistan: Paper Plates Making Business!

Hello guys I am here with another business idea for my super fans from Pakistan (this article is also quite relevant for all other Entrepreneurs from world over), in this super boring article 😝 I will discuss the following things: 

• Profit margin in this business, market demand of paper plates.
•  Paper plates making business total cost or investment required.
• Paper plates making machine, its price, functions, key features.
• Suppliers of Paper plates making machine.

Profit Margin & Market Demand:

Profit margin in this business varies between 25%-50%, which means you earn (net income) 0.25-0.50 Pkr for each rupee of total sales. For my international readers that means net income of 0.25-0.50 USD for each dollar of total sales.

The variation in profit margin is due to differences in overall expenses, fixed costs, material costs, variable costs, tax costs etc which vary from place to place, situation to situation.

I selected this idea for its super amazing market demand, for a while I realized that super best businesses in Pakistan in terms of profit margin, healthy growth aren’t those who provide to the bottom of pyramid consumers like Pepsi, burger point, ice cream dealer does, they provide to typical consumer.

But those business who provide or sell to Pepsi, burger point, an ice cream dealer etc, that is where I realized the immense untapped market opportunities waiting for Pakistani entrepreneurs because very few people think about this, all our great business ideas starts and end with typical, bottom of the pyramid consumers.

Agree ?! not sure! 😒

Well let me tell you more, have you imagined the number of restaurants around your city and just outside your city, like have you considered the number of restaurants, burger points, food dealers in 70 miles radius ? you won’t be able to count all of them!

Now just imagine selling your own paper made plates, parcels to these guys…. 😜!

Not convinced again?! 😐

Hear me more then!

How many of those restaurants are running for over five years successfully, well, if you count them, you will come to know that over 80% of these food points are successfully running for many many years, what this suggests?!

It suggests that your paper plates business won’t fail, it means your paper plate, parcels business will see tremendous growth because there will always be super healthy demand.

I am sure you are convinced now! 😓😐😉

Note: I have already shared over fifty business ideas for Pakistan market situation, if you want them check out Business Ideas and Business Ideas for Pakistani Market.

So demand is huge, now let’s talk about total required investment, to launch this business successfully.

Total Required Investment:

To run this business successfully, you will need the following things:

S.No	Required	Cost
1	Supplying vehicle, couple of bikes or Suzuki	70K-6Lakh
2	Office along with warehouse, manufacturing room	5K-15K per month
3	Electricity	5-15K per month
4	Sales Guys, at least two guys	Salary 15K per head
5	Raw Material	50K-1Lakh
6	Market Investment for healthy return (Net Profit)	2-5 Lakh
7	Fuel	6-10K per month
8	Machine cost	8 Lakh-15 Lakh (Local Pakistan made Machines can cost way lower, around 1 lakh 50 thousand rupees)
9	Labor to work on machine, packing output, you will need at least a couple guys to do this.	9K per head salary per month
10	Machine operator	Machine will be operated by the owner or by a labor, which will again cost 9K per month

You will need supplying vehicle to not only pick up raw materials for production but to also make supplies, now in a small scale setup you can do that by hiring a vehicle whenever you need to pick raw materials while for supplying you can use motor bikes with big boxes attached at the back.

But if you are really serious about it, then I would suggest that you start with a supplying vehicle, which will not only help you in covering huge market area thus making more sales but will also cut down vehicle hiring costs.

If you are having financial troubles in terms of cash, then having your office, production site, warehouse in cheapest location is better, where it will cost you less in rent, thus saving you money until you achieve break even, which will take anywhere from 4-12 months depending on your efforts, marketing, market competition, market demand, pricing etc.

Electricity cost may vary due to production or output, the more you produce the more it will cost in terms of electricity.

Experienced sales guys are a must for success of your business, so hiring experienced sales guys will cost you too, as they won’t work on 10-12K per month (saying that from personal experience), you will need to pay them at least 17K per month, that includes fuel, food and basic and along with all of this you will also need to pay sales commissions to keep them motivated, to make them achieve their daily, weekly, monthly sales targets.

I have written an extensive article on how to set sales commission, check this out: Sales Commission Plan Examples (for any type of business).

You will also need to buy paper to make paper plates like base paper, white board, white paper, PE coated paper etc, buying these papers in bulk will definitely come a lot more cheaper and that is why I mentioned 50 thousand to 1 Lakh above.

Now I forgot to share the most important point of this article, that is, whenever you want to start a specific business, its better you spend some time with people who are already running that business successfully, that way you will not only know the critical, important aspects of that particular business but also get a clue about the overall business itself.

So now if you have already spend time, you will know for sure which type of paper plates are in high demand and from where you can buy this raw material in bulk at cheapest price while at the same time not compromising on quality.

Remember, quality is really important, so make sure that you make at least something that is the norm in terms of quality in the market.

By market investment for healthy return I mean, that to make money you will need to supply to the market, the more market you capture, the more money you will make, now to capture huge market you will need to produce huge output, that means buying more raw material and then selling it all over.

Now in Pakistani market you don’t get hard cash each time you sell something, it is more likely that you will do bill to bill business, means you will need to do credit (minimum 2 Lakh - maximum 5 Lakh)  to earn a healthy return (net profit) and that’s what I meant by Market Investment for Healthy Return (Net Profit).

Fuel cost will vary, if it takes half an hour for you to reach to your office and your sales guys need over an hour to cover specific market region each day, then obviously it will cost more and vice versa.

Normally 250 rupees per day in fuel is sufficient but in rare cases it can jump to 450 Pkr per day.

Now if you are having a Suzuki to make sales, then obviously in that case you will need at least 600-900 Pkr each day in fuel and since working days in a month are 24-26 days, do your math!

Machine cost does not includes spare parts, a low-end machine will cost around 8.5-10 Lakh while a high-end machine will cost between 12-15 Lakh (these are imported machines).

While locally manufactured paper manufacturing machines will cost anywhere from 1 lakh 50 thousand to 2 lakh 50 thousand, variation in price is due to quality, features, warranty, guarantee  etc.

Finally you will need labor to not only operate the machine (in case you don’t want to do it yourself) but also to pack the output from the machine in carton boxes etc. Couples of labor guys for a single low-end or high-end machine are more than enough.

Seven thousand in monthly salary for those labors doesn’t mean it’s the minimum, there are regions in Pakistan where labor work on way lesser than that and there are also regions where you will need to pay more than this, quite a lot more than this, so it all depends!

Paper Plate Making Machine Price, Functions, Key Features:

Although there are variety of low-end, high-end machines available in the market, I am going take the most simple, low-end machine to explain it key features, price, functions.

Though I have already mentioned its price/cost in the above section but let me explain it a bit further, a quality low-end paper plate making machine is hardly available in Pakistan, doesn’t mean it’s not, but I have check the internet and couldn’t find a supplier inside Pakistan so you will need to import it from China.

Update 2022/18/Feb: Low end average quality paper plates making machines are now available in Pakistan, check out this link.

Note: The only website that does shows up with a machine and a price tag, is from India and you know we have quite a number of problems with India on Country to Country level and plus I am sure Chinese can do better than Indians. Lastly, Chinese model is way better than Indian model, so logically one should go for China. Check this link to that site!

You can find a variety of paper plates making machines at Alibaba.com, do check out, the least it will cost excluding import duties, freight etc is $6800-7300 per unit.

I have selected Unitely (Bonjee Machinery co.ltd) BJ-400P disposable paper plate making machine that is fully automatic and can produce 65-85 paper plates per minute.

Machine Pictures:

Here is how it works:

Here are Paper Plates Samples Produced by This Machine:

Other features/details are as follow:

Main Technical Data of the Machine:

Main Electrical Parts List of the Machine:

If you want to make different paper plates, of different size, thickness etc then you will need to buy paper moulder's accordingly and each set of paper moulder's cost $500.

And if you need an automatic plates collection device, then you will need to pay $450 per set.

To order/buy this machine, you will need to pay 30% of the total price before production and 70% before shipment of the machine.

You will get your machine delivered to you in around 20-25 days after full payment.

The company provides one year guarantee, if you face any problems in machines that are not due bad operation of the machine but are due to machine itself, the company will repair, replace, send all machine parts for free and after one year, you will need to pay for any repairs, replacements etc.

Installation & Training:

The company will send its technician to not only install, test run the machine but will also train people at your location on as to how run the machine efficiently and effectively.

Although you will need to pay the technician his daily wage, which is $80 and also getting him visa, two way air tickets, food, hotel, transportation, translator.

For more information on Machine manufacturer, contact, email, machine specifications etc please contact me via my website contact form or email address.

That’s it!

Update 2022/18/Feb: For more cool business ideas (500 plus ideas!) in Pakistan market context check out this Business Ideas in Pakistan.

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Over to you guys 😉!