What it does
Sourcing a packaging supplier usually means a search engine, a trade fair badge and a folder of PDFs, none of which tell you whether the company can run your structure at your quantity in your market.
The Packaging Directory lists approved packaging suppliers with the things that decide the shortlist — capabilities, materials, markets and a named contact. Open any listing for the full profile. It also carries Unclaimed listings for companies not yet on GPN, marked as such and shown without contact details — send an inquiry and we invite them to join and reply to you.
How search works
Search combines filters across categories, and the two directions matter:
- Several values in one category widen the search A supplier matching any of them counts.
- Filters from another category narrow it A supplier must match every category you have used.
So picking three materials and two markets returns suppliers who work in any of those three materials and serve either of those two markets. Start broad in one category, then add a second category to cut the list down.
- Open Search in the directory.
- Pick values in one or more filter categories.
- Tap through a result to see the full supplier profile.
Comparing and shortlisting
- Three-way compare Put three suppliers side by side rather than flicking between profiles.
- Saved shortlist Keep the ones worth a conversation.
- Inquiry board Post what you need and let suppliers come to you — sent to every supplier whose listing matches, or only to your shortlist, or only to suppliers you name. Your contact details stay hidden unless you share them.
Connect: emailing suppliers from your own mailbox
The inquiry board brings suppliers to you. Connect goes the other way — it writes the email you would have written to each supplier yourself, and hands it to your own mail app to send. GPN never sends it: the email comes from your address, so it looks like you, and replies land in your own inbox rather than inside an app.
- Write the template once Seven ready-made ones to start from — request for quotation, sample request, supplier introduction, price revision enquiry, vendor onboarding, follow-up and thank you — or build your own with paragraphs, bullets and a specification table.
- Every email fills itself in Insert fields for the company you are emailing — their name, contact person, city, product category — and for yourself. Each prepared email carries a signature built from your profile.
- Send from your own mail app On a phone the message opens ready to send; on a computer it is copied formatted to your clipboard as your webmail opens with the address and subject already filled.
- Keep track Everything you send is listed, with a status you set and a date to follow it up.
Connect comes with the Packaging Directory at no extra cost. It is deliberately limited: five emails a day to directory suppliers, twenty-five a day to your own saved contacts, and a fourteen-day gap before the same supplier can be emailed again by the same member. The directory only stays worth searching if nobody can work it as a mailing list.
For suppliers: your listing
Suppliers maintain their own listing from My listing — capabilities, materials, markets and contact details. Edits go to a GPN admin for approval before they appear publicly, which is what makes the directory worth searching: admins can edit any listing and approve, feature or verify suppliers.
For buyers: the directory plus SCM
A Buyer account — chosen at sign-up — opens the Packaging Directory automatically and adds SCM, which takes the place CRM has on a standard account:
- Your suppliers Every approved directory supplier alongside the ones you have invited yourself. An invited supplier is tagged "Waiting to Onboard" until a listing with their email address is approved.
- Contacts The named contact from every approved listing, with one-tap call, WhatsApp and email, and the cost models each company has shared with you.
- Inquiries The same inquiry board, reached from SCM.
- Invitations Pre-written email or WhatsApp invitations carrying your name, company, contact details and User Code, to bring suppliers you already work with onto GPN.
Buyers do not create cost models — admins and suppliers do — but with calculator access a buyer can price a job against a published model to understand the cost basis behind a quotation.
Who uses it
- Packaging buyers and procurement managers Search, compare, shortlist, and post inquiries without handing out your contact details.
- Startup and D2C brand owners Find suppliers who actually run your material and quantity, from a standing start.
- Suppliers A verified listing in front of buyers who are searching by capability rather than by brand name.
The use cases on the home page cover all eight roles and which modules answer each.