Paying someone else to bottle it

What a copacker actually does

You deliver bulk honey in drums or buckets. They warm it, filter it to an agreed specification, fill and cap to your container and label, and hand back cased finished goods. Some will hold stock and ship to your accounts. Most have a minimum run, and the minimum is usually larger than a first-time producer expects.

The economics are per-unit and volume-banded, so the price you are quoted for a thousand jars and the price at ten thousand are different businesses. Ask for both before you decide whether this is a step or a cliff.

When it makes sense

It makes sense when bottling is your bottleneck and the bottleneck is costing you sales you could otherwise close. It rarely makes sense as a way to save money at small volume, because you are paying someone else's overhead to do something you can currently do in a day.

It also makes sense when a buyer requires something you cannot provide yourself. Some wholesale and retail accounts want a facility with a food-safety program and audit history, and that requirement is not negotiable from their side no matter how clean your own setup is.

What it costs you besides money

You lose the ability to fix things the same afternoon. You lose direct feel for your product between harvest and shelf. And you take on a scheduling dependency in the one season where timing matters, because their run calendar will not rearrange itself around your flow.

You also hand over the filtration decision unless you specify it. Filtration is a flavor and appearance decision as much as a clarity one, and a copacker's default is set for their other customers rather than for you.

What you are still responsible for

The label is yours, and so is what it claims. Packing under someone else's roof does not move the labeling obligation, and the name and address on the container still has to identify who is responsible for the product. Agree in writing who supplies containers and labels, who owns the honey at each stage, what happens to overruns, and what the specification for moisture and filtration is.

Put the moisture specification in numbers. It is the single term most likely to be assumed rather than agreed, and it is the one that shows up later as fermentation in somebody's warehouse.

References