Oral liquids bring problems that tablets never do. The product is heavy, it goes into bottles that can break or leak, and the taste decides repeat sales almost as much as the composition. Brand owners who plan for these things at the briefing stage avoid most of the trouble that shows up after launch.
The syrup manufacturers listed above take third party orders for syrups, suspensions and dry syrups under your brand. Here is how to set up a proper brief, and what to agree on before the first batch is filled.
Bottle, cap and carton
Start with the pack, because it moves the price more than most people expect. Amber PET bottles are light and cost less to ship. Glass is heavier and breaks, so freight and breakage go up, but some buyers and some formulations still need it. Common sizes are 60 ml, 100 ml, 150 ml, 200 ml and 450 ml, and cough or tonic products often sell in 100 ml and 200 ml.
- Cap: aluminium ROPP cap or plastic cap, with a measuring cup in the pack
- Carton: printed mono carton with a leaflet, or a label only for trade products
- Label: paper wrap-around label or a sleeve, depending on the plant's labelling machine
- Shipper: how many bottles go in one corrugated box, and the box strength
Get the label size from the plant before your designer starts. Artwork made to the wrong dimensions is the most common reason a first syrup batch gets delayed.
Flavour, sugar-free bases and batch size
Taste sells syrup, especially in paediatric and cough ranges where the mother or the patient decides whether the second bottle gets bought. Ask for flavour samples, such as mango, orange, pineapple, mixed fruit or mint, before you fix the formula. Try them yourself and with a few chemists.
Sugar-free bases using sorbitol or other sweeteners are asked for by doctors treating diabetic patients. They cost a little more and need their own stability work, because a change of base is a change of formula. Treat the sugar-free version as a separate product in your brief.
Syrup is sold by the bottle but made by the litre. If a plant's vessel makes 1,000 litres per batch, that is roughly 10,000 bottles of 100 ml. Smaller quantities may be possible in a smaller vessel, at a higher rate per bottle. Write your quantity per batch in both bottles and litres so nobody misreads it.
Stability and safe shipping
Liquids change in the bottle over time: colour, taste, pH, preservative level, and settling in suspensions. Ask the plant whether stability data exists for your exact composition in the pack you chose, and what shelf life it will print. A new flavour, or a switch from glass to PET, can mean the old data no longer applies. Each batch should come with a COA showing description, assay, pH, weight per ml and microbial test results where they apply.
Freight is where syrup brands lose money quietly. Seal quality, cap tightness and shipper strength decide how many bottles reach the chemist intact. Most syrup manufacturers quote ex-factory, so freight is on you. Ask how bottles are packed in the shipper, whether partitions are used, and who pays for leakage and breakage found on delivery. Put the answers, along with the expiry return terms, in writing before the first dispatch.
Get quotes for your syrup range
Post your requirement through the form on this page. List each product with its composition per 5 ml, bottle size and material, cap type, carton or no carton, flavour, normal or sugar-free base, quantity per batch in bottles, and your target date. Posting is free, your number stays off the site, and the requirement goes only to syrup manufacturers who make oral liquids. When the rates come in, compare them on the same pack and the same freight terms, not on the headline price alone.
Related pages: Pharma Tablet Manufacturers and Liquid & Dry Syrup Manufacturers. Molecules most listed here: Multivitamin + Multimineral, Paracetamol, Zinc.
