How to Respond to an RFQ (and Make the Co-Packing Shortlist)

Every guide on how to respond to an RFQ is written for the buyer — procurement teams, scoring matrices, vendor portals. Nobody writes for the plant on the receiving end. So here it is: how to answer a co-packing RFQ so the brand puts you on the shortlist instead of the pile.

What's happening on the other side

A brand that sends you an RFQ sent the same document to somewhere between 5 and 15 other plants. Their first read isn't a selection. It's an elimination. Someone — a founder, an ops consultant, sometimes an intern with a scoring sheet — is hunting for reasons to cut the stack from 12 responses to 3.

Blank rows get cut. "Pricing available upon discussion" gets cut. A PDF that ignores half the questions and attaches a brochure gets cut. The brand did its homework before you ever saw the document — most of them build their list the same few ways, which we broke down in where CPG brands look when they need a co-packer. By the time the RFQ lands, you're not being discovered. You're being screened.

That reframes the job. Your response doesn't need to win the contract. It needs to survive the first cut and earn a call. Everything below serves that one goal.

How to respond to an RFQ: answer every row

This is the rule that decides most shortlists, and it's the one plants break most often. Every row in the spreadsheet gets an answer. Every question in the document gets a response. No exceptions.

Can't do something? Say so in one line, with context:

• "Do you hold SQF certification?" — "SQF Level 2, last audited March 2026, certificate attached." Or: "Currently GMP-audited; SQF audit scheduled for Q1. Food safety plan available on request."
• "Can you run 4 oz glass?" — "Yes, Line 2, up to 60 jars per minute." Or: "Our lines run 8 oz and up. If 4 oz is firm, we'll quote a changeover feasibility check."
• "What's your minimum run?" — A number. Not "flexible." Not "depends on the product." A number, plus the conditions that move it.

A blank row reads as "can't do it and hoping you won't notice." An honest "not yet, here's the plan" reads as a plant that knows itself. Buyers can work with the second one. They can't work with silence.

Quote per SKU, not per project

Here's what happens to your quote after you hit send: someone drops it into a comparison spreadsheet next to four others. If your number is a lump sum — "$180,000 for the program" — it can't be compared line by line, so it gets set aside to "revisit later." It never gets revisited.

Quote a tolling fee per unit, per SKU, at two or three volume tiers. Break setup and changeover charges out as their own lines. The difference looks like this:

Per-SKU pricing also protects you. When the brand adds a second flavor in month four — they always do — you already have the framework. You're extending a price list, not renegotiating a lump sum from scratch.

Name your assumptions in writing

Every co-packing quote rests on assumptions, whether you state them or not. Who buys ingredients. Who owns packaging inventory. What the run size is. Who pays for pallets and freight. What the payment terms are.

Unstated assumptions don't disappear. They surface in month three as disputes. Stated assumptions become negotiation points now and contract clauses later. Add a short block near your pricing — five to eight bullets, plain language: "Pricing assumes brand-supplied film delivered two weeks ahead of the run date. 50% deposit on tooling. Net-30 from ship date."

Three lines like that won't scare off a serious brand. They signal you've done this before. And when you win the work, those same bullets flow straight into what a co-packing agreement should include — you've already written half the term sheet.

Speed beats polish

The pattern is consistent across the industry: responses that land inside 48-72 hours get read carefully. Responses that land in week two get skimmed by someone who already booked calls with three other plants.

Remember why the RFQ exists. A brand running a formal search is usually up against something — a retailer commitment, a seasonal window, a current co-packer that's failing them. Speed reads as operational competence. If your sales response is slow, they assume your production communication will be slower.

Can't build the full response in 48 hours? Send a holding reply within 24: "Received. Complete per-SKU pricing by Thursday. Two questions first: who supplies packaging, and is the 4 oz format locked?" Sharp questions early prove you actually read the document. Half your competitors didn't.

Propose the plant tour before they ask

Most responses end with "let us know if you have any questions." That hands the next move to the buyer — and buyers default to whichever plant made the next move easy.

End yours with a dated, specific offer: "We host brand visits on Thursdays. October 9 or October 16 both work — pick one and we'll have Line 2 running your format." Spreadsheet rows are comparable. Plants aren't. Once a founder has walked your floor and met your QA manager, you stop being a row in a spreadsheet. We wrote a full playbook on plant tours that win contracts, but the short version: the plant that gets the visit usually gets the contract.

Build the response kit once

You can't produce all of this in 48 hours from a standing start. You can if 80% of it is pre-built. One afternoon with your ops manager gets you there:

1. A capabilities one-pager: lines, formats, speeds, minimums, certifications with audit dates.
2. A per-SKU pricing template with your volume tiers and setup charges pre-formatted.
3. Your standard assumptions block — the same five to eight bullets on every quote.
4. Current certificates merged into a single PDF.
5. Two standing tour slots a month, held on the calendar.

With the kit built, each RFQ becomes a two-hour job: fill the rows, tune the pricing, attach the certs, name two tour dates, send. Inside 48 hours, every time.

One more thing worth saying plainly. RFQs arrive on the brand's schedule, not yours. If they're your only source of new contracts, your pipeline is a lottery ticket. Plants that grow steadily in the $2-15M range treat RFQs as one channel and run their own outbound alongside — the work Feed The Line does for co-packers — so the next contract doesn't depend on being lucky enough to get asked.

Frequently asked questions