Frequently Asked Questions

You asked. We answered.

Here at Custom Advent Calendars, we are always happy to help. We have thought of our most asked questions about our custom calendars that aim to help you find the answers you’re looking for. If you can’t find what you need, contact us and we will be happy to assist you, you might even find your question gets added to this page.

Custom Advent Calendars are typically used to countdown to the festive season, however they are becoming more and more popular to be used all year round. Calendars typically include 24 doors to open, one for each day leading up to a season, event or product launch but with us you can completely customise everything. You can have different sizes, amount of drawers, designs, and generally anything on the calendar you can change to suit you. We have both luxury advent calendars and traditional advent calendars. 

Telescopic tubes are perfect for candle or cosmetic packaging. This luxury packaging option consists of two components acting as two bases of a tube. One piece is slightly larger in diameter so that it can slide on top and act as a lid. Choosing a telescopic tube gives you the opportunity to have a bigger branding area as you can work with two pieces. Both pieces can be fully customised with a CMYK print and you can add extras such as foil stamping, spot UV and lid decorations. 

Eco Tubes are becoming the next packaging of choice as more clients realise consumers like sustainable and eco-friendly products as well as its packaging. We do have options where you can make your luxury tube packaging 100% recyclable like uncoated paper with soy ink for your custom prints. There also options to make the majority of the tubes eco-friendly but you do have the option of adding lamination etc, however the more extras you add the less eco-friendly it will be. Check out our Tube Options page for more detailed information.

Whether you’ve got food that needs to stay fresh or items such as bath salts that can’t interact with water until consumers want to use them, we can produce custom food-grade tubes to help. All materials to choose from that will go inside the tubes are non-toxic, food safe and can be in direct contact with any produce. Check out our Tube Options page for more detailed information.

Single Tubes are a one piece solid tube with a cap on top. You can generally choose between paper and metal caps but the MOQ for metal caps are higher. The diameter of your tube may need to be altered if you get metal caps as these caps only come in certain sizes. These branded tubes are typically used to hold alcohol bottles. Check out our Tube Options page for more detailed information.

The minimum order quantity for our luxury custom tube presentation packaging is 500. This is due to all set up and manufacturing charges that are needed to fulfil your order.

Yes, at Magellan we would need you to provide us with your artwork. After you have already approached us, we would provide you with an artwork PDF template for you to overlay your custom designs over it. This will be given once both us and you have finalised the dimensions of your branded tubes. Either yourself or a design department/creative agency can overlay the design onto our template. We are always happy to help if you need any guidance on this process.

The lead time for any presentation tubes is about three weeks from the artwork sign off and full approval. However, this can vary if it is an extremely large quantity of five thousand or more then it may be more likely around four to five weeks. The quantity and how you decide to deliver your custom branded tubes, such as sea freight or air freight, with air freight being the quicker option, can impact how long the process will take and how much it would cost.

Through our usual manufacturing route there are minimum and maximum heights and diameters we work within for our custom printed tubes. The height for our presentation tubes range from 50mm to 1200mm, and the internal diameter ranges from 40mm to 160mm. Any larger than those sizes, will result in your branded tubes becoming more like box tubes. 

In your quotation for your luxury printed tubes, you will be given a delivery charge in your quote from us. The delivery charge is a cost but we will already put it into the quotation price for you. This will usually be for one UK mainland address. If you require your presentation packaging to go to multiple locations we will have the bulk delivered to our facility, we will split them up, then we will ship them to the multiple addresses that the client requires. If we are doing that in our facility, there will be additional charges for each address that we send it to. The other differing factor is how we send it whether it be air freight, sea freight or road freight. Everything will be discussed in detail and we will answer any questions you have about our delivery charges.

Magellan can distribute your cardboard tube packaging either by air, sea or road freight. Our most effective and quickest ways to get your premium products to where they need to be are by air or sea freight. Each type of distribution does vary in pricing so when discussing the transportation alternatives, we can provide you with our recommendations and the best competitive prices for you. Find out more about our shipping options by clicking here

We currently offer five types of presentation tubes for you to choose from which you can take a further look into on our Tube Options drop down menu. Our Butted Tubes are our most popular, it is made up of three parts consisting of a lid, base and the inner spigot. Our telescopic tubes consist of two components that slot onto one another acting as a base and lid. We offer Eco Tube as our environmentally friendly options which can be recycled. Food-Grade Tubes are available which help any air etc from getting inside to keep the produce safe. Our Single Tubes are a one piece solid tube with a cap. Check out our YouTube videos too to see examples of each.

The materials and process for each branded tube is very similar. Our standard material is card, which is typically recycled card paper and this is used on most of our tubes. There is the option of our more eco-friendly option which is natural brown craft paper. Presentation tubes then would be overlaid with a printed sheet of paper or again to make it more eco-friendly it would be an uncoated layer placed on. Metal caps, plastic or cardboard caps can be used mainly for our Single Tubes. 

We have a wide variety of branding options including finishing’s, printing and added extras. The finishing’s we offer are a matt lamination or a gloss lamination, however if you are going with an eco-friendly option you would go for just uncoated paper. With your print you would typically go with a full custom CMYK print but again the more eco-friendly and fully recyclable option is our soy ink. The print can be placed anywhere on the tube including the lid, base and inner spigot which would create a more premium feel. The inner spigot and edges can be rolled to make it look more aesthetically pleasing and will also help protect the paper from peeling, especially if it is being constantly opened and closed. Our additional added extras are options like spot UV, foil stamping and an embossed cap depending on the material used.     

You aren’t really limited to what custom products can be placed inside. During the process of discussions and working out dimensions for you printed cardboard tube, we will consider the weight and size of the object that is being placed inside and whether the tube chosen can withstand the weight. The heavier the product the more you will need to make sure the tube can actually hold the weight of the product inside. Generally the heavier the product then the thicker the tube will need to be. Overall, no there is no limit for the products you put inside as long as things like double the width and internal spigots are considered. This is a reason as to why we strongly suggest getting a sample of your product to see if everything has worked smoothly.

Magellan does have branded tube samples of the work we have previously made for companies. If you would like to see one for yourself, we can send some out for you as long as you either return those samples back or purchase them so that you can keep them. The other alternative is we could take some photos or videos of the presentation tube you are interested in to save the hassle of shipping etc. 

Yes we do, our preferred working method is that you leave enough time to produce a pre-production sample. This is so you can physically see what exactly you are going to get and to double check everything you have requested such as the dimensions and print that you would then sign off to get full production started. The main thing we advise to do is to check that your product definitely fits inside and if anything is incorrect, you can then request to change it. We always make sure that we have enough time to get a pre-production sample made for you. Once you have received one and you have approved it with no further changes needed, we then would go ahead with the full production of your branded tubes.

Magellan does NOT have any standard off-the-shelf sized tubes. We only provide branded tube samples of previous work we have already done. We only produce fully customised items with it being a complete start to finish process. We don’t stock anything in our warehouse apart from the previous presentation tubes already created for other companies to use as a sample of a specific tube another company may desire.

Yes, we can distribute your presentation tubes to multiple locations whether its in the UK or not. The prices of delivery will vary depending on quantities, location and delivery method. Another factor in shipping is if its just being sent directly to certain postcodes or if we fulfil them first and then send them off.

The majority of our printed tubes are recyclable. All of our tubes are made from cardboard or natural Kraft paper but it really depends on the added extras placed on top as the more you add the less eco-friendly it becomes. We do recommend going for uncoated paper as the custom tube would then become fully recyclable and gives you an eco-friendly feel. Adding any lamination on top will then make it less recyclable. However most of the matt and gloss laminated papers are now more biodegradable but it is not as much of an eco-friendly option compared to uncoated paper. Going from cardboard caps to either plastic or metal can also make you product less recyclable. With caps you can just remove those from the tube but you need to think if your customer is willing to do that. 

At Magellan we can give you the option of fulfilment where we will fill, pack and distribute your branded items out. You can either send your products that are being placed inside to us or you can have us deal with finding the custom products and we will sort out everything. Doing any of this will be an additional cost, the price will depend on how much you require. 

For any quotation we would need the basics including the quantity of tubes, the internal diameter and the internal height. Depending on your branded tube, we would also need how far down you would like the lid to come on your tube. To help us we would also like the external diameter and height of the item going inside so that we can see how much wiggle room you have with the internal diameter of the tube, ensuring the item will fit. Overall, any information that is not listed already above then let us know, as the more information you provide, the easier it is for us and the quicker the process will be.