Gift kitting is the part of a corporate gifting project that blows the budget, because the box, the filler, the assembly and the delivery are all priced separately from the gift itself. In Dubai, a realistic all-in figure is the contents plus AED 15–50 per head for packaging: a printed corrugated box works out at AED 15 each in 100s, a magnetic-closure gift box at AED 38–44, and a luxury wooden box at AED 51. A ready-assembled gift set removes the kitting step entirely and starts at AED 28. All prices include 5% VAT.
This guide breaks down what each layer of a kit actually costs, when assembling in-house beats buying a ready set, and how to brief a kitting job so 300 boxes do not turn into three weeks of chaos in your office.
What a gift kit is actually made of
Price a kit layer by layer and the decisions get much easier:
- The contents — one to five branded items. Usually the biggest line, and the one everyone focuses on.
- The outer box — AED 13.80 to AED 73.50 per unit depending on construction. This is where the perceived value lives.
- The inside — insert, tissue, shredded filler, a card. Small money, large effect.
- Assembly labour — the hidden line. A three-item kit takes 60–90 seconds per box to assemble properly, so 300 kits is roughly 6–8 person-hours before anything moves.
- Delivery — either one bulk drop to your office, or individual despatch to recipients, which is a completely different cost structure.
Real box and set prices (VAT included)
| Item | Spec | Pack | Price (AED) | Per unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leather Gift Pen Packaging Box | Single-pen presentation box | 50 | 690 | 13.80 |
| Corrugated Box, black print | 35 × 25 × 10 cm | 100 | 1,500 | 15.00 |
| Plantable Kit with GHAF Seeds in Kraft Box | Ready kit, kraft box | 50 | 790 | 15.80 |
| Black Gift Box with Magnetic Closure, XL | Rigid, magnetic lid | 50 | 1,900 | 38.00 |
| Black Plain Gift Box, A3, magnetic closure | A3 footprint, rigid | 50 | 2,200 | 44.00 |
| Luxury Black Wooden Gift Box, XL | Wood construction | 50 | 2,550 | 51.00 |
| Hard Case Magnet Box with Magnetic Lock | 35 × 25 × 10 cm, rigid hard case | 100 | 7,350 | 73.50 |
| Moda — Giftology Premium 2pc Gift Set | Ready set, navy or black | 1 | 28 | 28.00 |
| HEVIZ — Giftology tumbler, A5 notebook & pen | Ready 3pc set, 4 colours | 1 | 35 | 35.00 |
| Tulum — Santhome notebook, pen & card holder | Walnut accents | 1 | 49 | 49.00 |
| GIESSEN — Hans Larsen tumbler, notebook & pen | Ready 3pc set | 1 | 70 | 70.00 |
| Firenze — Giftology Luxeline 4pc Gift Set | Ready 4pc set | 1 | 89 | 89.00 |
| ALMADA — CHANGE ZERO 5pc Onboarding Set | Sustainable, 3 colours | 1 | 106 | 106.00 |
| AVEIRO — CHANGE ZERO 5pc Gratitude Set | Sustainable, navy or black | 1 | 127 | 127.00 |
| Ocean Bottle 3-in-1 Set | Ready premium set | 1 | 209 | 209.00 |
Browse the full custom box printing collection and the ready gift sets collection.
Build a kit or buy a ready set? Run this comparison
Take a mid-tier gift for 200 people. Two routes:
Route A — custom kit. Tumbler + notebook + pen bought separately, placed in a magnetic-closure box at AED 38, plus tissue and a thank-you card at roughly AED 3, plus assembly. Even if the three items come to AED 45, your kit is AED 86+ per head before anyone has folded a box.
Route B — ready set. The HEVIZ tumbler, A5 notebook and pen set is AED 35 per head, already boxed, already colour-matched, already assembled. Adding your logo is a branding step, not a kitting project.
The rule of thumb: if the contents of your planned kit match a ready set within one item, buy the ready set. Custom kitting earns its cost in three situations only — the contents are genuinely unusual, the box itself is a brand statement (a product launch, a VIP list), or the kit must contain something only you have, such as a printed welcome booklet or a signed letter.
If you are weighing this up for a wider programme, our comparison of ready boxes vs custom kits goes deeper on the trade-off.
The per-head delivery maths nobody budgets for
Kitting costs change completely depending on where the kits end up.
- One bulk drop to your office. The cheapest route by a wide margin. Delivery is free within Dubai on orders over AED 800, and any kit order of real size clears that instantly. Your cost is then internal: someone has to hand them out.
- Multi-site drops across the Emirates. We deliver across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Al Ain, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain. Splitting one order into five site drops is normally a single logistics line, not five separate orders — tell us the split at quote stage, not after production.
- Individual despatch to home addresses. This is the expensive one, and the cost is courier-driven rather than print-driven. Two things control it: the volumetric weight of your box, and address quality. A 35 × 25 × 10 cm rigid box is charged on volume, not on the 400 g of contents inside it. Choosing a box one size down often saves more per head than negotiating the gift price.
Practical consequence: for a remote-team gift, specify the box around the contents rather than picking the box you like first. A compact kit in a right-sized box can land AED 10–20 per head cheaper on courier alone.
How to brief a kitting job so it runs clean
- Lock the contents list and the quantity on the same day. Kitting costs are driven by the slowest item to arrive, not the most expensive one. One back-ordered component holds 300 boxes.
- Order 3–5% spare on every component. Boxes get creased, pens get marked, and recipient lists always grow. Spare components are cheap; a second production run is not.
- Decide the box before the insert. Inserts are cut to the box, never the other way round. Changing box size after the insert is drawn means redoing the insert.
- Supply the personalisation list as one spreadsheet — name, site, and which variant each person gets. If kits differ by tier or by colour, that column decides how the batch is sorted and labelled.
- Agree the delivery split in writing — how many boxes to which address, and the contact name at each one. This is the single most common source of delays in the last 48 hours of a gifting project.
- Send print-ready artwork as a CMYK PDF at 300 dpi with 3 mm bleed, text outlined. Design support comes with every order.
Lead times to plan around
Printed boxes run on a standard production cycle after final artwork approval; ready gift sets need only the branding step, so they move faster. The realistic planning figure for a full custom kit from brief to delivered boxes is three to four weeks, and the realistic figure for branded ready sets is noticeably shorter.
Two periods compress everything: the run-up to UAE National Day in late November, and the final two weeks before Ramadan. If your kitting project lands in either window, add a week of buffer and approve artwork early. Our conference delegate kits guide has a comparable timeline for event-driven kits.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum order for custom printed gift boxes?
Rigid and magnetic-closure gift boxes are supplied in packs of 50; printed corrugated and hard case boxes in packs of 100. Ready gift sets are priced per piece, which is why they suit small or uneven recipient lists.
How much should I budget per head for packaging alone?
AED 15 for a printed corrugated box, AED 38–44 for a rigid magnetic-closure box, AED 51 for a wooden box and AED 73.50 for a hard case with a magnetic lock. Add roughly AED 3 for tissue, filler and a card.
Can kits be assembled for us rather than in our office?
Yes — tell us at quote stage that the order is to be delivered assembled, along with the contents list and any per-recipient variation. It is priced as part of the job rather than as a separate service, and it is almost always faster than doing it internally.
Is it cheaper to put a ready gift set inside a custom branded box?
Usually not, and it often looks worse. Most ready sets already arrive in their own presentation packaging. If the set needs to carry your brand, print the sleeve or add a branded card rather than paying for a second outer box.
What happens if the recipient list grows after production starts?
This is exactly what the 3–5% spare is for. Beyond that, extra kits mean a top-up run, which is why it is worth confirming headcount with HR or the event team before artwork approval rather than after.
Do the prices shown include VAT?
Yes, every price on this page includes 5% VAT, and design support is included with the order.
Get a kitting quote with the real numbers
Send the contents list, the headcount and the delivery split, and we will come back with a per-head figure that includes the box, the inside and the delivery — not just the gift. Call or WhatsApp 0522100909 (+971 52 210 0909), or start from the ready gift sets collection if you want the fastest route, and the custom box printing collection if the box is the statement.
