The Bag Broker is a European-owned, Asian based wholesaler of flexible food packaging.

We have a very strong knowledge of the local market and uniquely in the European food packaging market at least, we are able to take care of our product and quality from when the raw materials are bought through to when the finished product is delivered to the end user.

We are the first wholesaler in Europe offering a bag made from certified bio-degradable ingredients; we have a strong focus on innovation overall, and quality is in our blood, with our founder still personally overseeing every production himself to this day.

How did we get started?

The Bag Broker came about in 2004, when I was the sales manager of a Taiwanese espresso machine manufacturer.

During negotiations with a US based coffee roaster, they informed me that there would be a market for coffee bags in the US, in fact, he himself would buy if I located a source enabling him to bypass the importers who – according to him – overcharged, had poor service, and in general did not serve him properly.

Thus, The Bag Broker was born.

From the beginning, we focused on one product and one alone – food packaging; sold directly from Taiwan to overseas customers in volumes big and small with a top notch service and a strong commitment to ensure that both customization according to the customer’s wishes and the quality of the product, was done as well as possible.

Our target customer group was from the start small and mid-size food manufacturers needing high-quality innovative packaging solutions delivered with great service and a degree of customization usually only available to the big players.

We saw an opportunity for an Asian-based supplier able to fulfill these requirements, and have built & developed our business model around that core need.  

Why Taiwan?

Apart from the fact that I was based here, the fact of the matter is, that Taiwanese packaging is second to none.

The quality is high, delivery times are fast, and they are very innovative. This has provided us with ample means to compete and gain market share globally.

The Taiwanese do though need to have their customers close at hand – business here is done on a personal level, where a handshake is usually the contract you need, and the face to face relationships ensure that your products and your service stands above the rest.

We have always focused on working with a small number of Taiwanese factories – and we consider the close relationship with them a major asset in our business. This close relationship has meant that we have been able to launch new products as some of the first in the market.

The True Bio Bag and the Box Bottom Bag with its innovative slit would be cases in point.

We started to work with overseas wholesalers only a short time after I launched the business. Let us be honest here, most wholesalers, be it in the UK, Europe, the US or elsewhere are usually small operations who do not have the manpower and the Asian presence needed to build up the crucial close relationships with the suppliers ensuring success.

We helped them with that, however at the same time it started us thinking about the next step in the development of the business.

That next step took place in late 2011, when we launched The Bag Broker UK.

The model for this new business was not just to be the Asian end of the packaging material supply chain, instead to encompass it from the factory gate all the way to the end user of the product.

The end result is that we are able to oversee the whole process, from ordering through production, shipment, sales and local delivery until it reaches our coffee roaster or tea packer, spice wholesaler or retailer, or maybe the coffee shop with a 1kg roaster in-house.

More to follow in Part 2…