How Much Does an FSDU Cost in Ireland & the UK?

You clicked this hoping for a number. Every display company knows that — and the disposable ones exploit it, leading with a per-unit price that looks brilliant right up until you notice you're paying it again every campaign.

So this article does something more useful than quoting a figure that would be wrong for your project anyway: it shows you what actually drives the cost of an FSDU, and how to compare quotes so the cheap option and the good option stop getting confused.

The honest answer: it depends on four things

Any FSDU quote — ours or anyone's — is built from material, size, branding and quantity. A supplier who gives you a price before asking about all four is guessing, and you'll pay for the guess later, in revisions or in corners quietly cut.

1. Material — the decision that decides everything else

Corrugated cardboard is the cheapest thing you can put on a shop floor, and the most expensive thing you can keep putting there. It's priced to be bought repeatedly: printed, shipped, installed, binned, reordered. That's not a flaw in the model. That is the model.

Solid timber and FSC-certified plywood cost more on the first invoice — we won't pretend otherwise — and then they simply stop costing. One build, years of service, zero reprints. The comparison that matters is not invoice versus invoice; it's one invoice versus a subscription. See wood vs cardboard for the full argument.

2. Size and complexity

A compact counter unit costs less than a full-height floor unit; that much is obvious. What moves the number beyond footprint is build complexity: number of shelves, angled presentation, weight-bearing requirements (real products are heavier than mock-ups), integrated headers, and whether the unit needs to break down flat for freight. A well-designed unit puts the money where the shopper looks and the strength where the stock sits.

3. Branding

Laser engraving, UV print and stained finishes are priced by method and coverage — an engraved logo on the header is one job, full-colour artwork across every face is another. Pantone and RAL matching is standard on our work, and every project gets a digital mock-up approved before production, so the unit you priced is the unit you receive. No surprises is part of the specification.

4. Quantity

This is where multi-store rollouts win. Design, mock-up and setup happen once; the run absorbs them. Twenty units do not cost twenty times one unit — and flat-pack slot-together formats compound the saving, because freight is priced by volume and a display that ships flat is most of the way to paying for its own delivery. Our ESPOSIT floor displays — which we distribute exclusively for Ireland and the UK — exist for exactly this maths.

The lifetime maths the industry would rather skip

Here is the exercise to run on every display quote you ever receive. Take the price. Divide it by the years — not weeks — the unit will serve. Then add everything the invoice leaves out.

For a cardboard programme, the invoice leaves out a lot: the reprint for the next campaign, and the one after that. The freight, every time. The install labour, every time. The waste collection, every time — because "recyclable" still has to be collected, and someone pays for the skip. And the cost nobody books anywhere: week five of the campaign, when the unit is sagging under stock and scuffed at the corners, wearing your logo while it does it.

A wooden FSDU runs the same exercise in one line: one build, one delivery, then years of re-merchandising — new season, new stock, same fixture. Measured over its working life, permanent wood is frequently the lower total cost — and always the lower waste. If your sustainability team has started counting POS in the waste ledger (they have, or they will), the wooden unit is also the only option that never lands in it.

Flagship first: how brands de-risk the spend

If a full rollout feels like a leap, don't leap — stage it. The pattern we see from the smartest buyers runs like this.

Start with a plain, unbranded ESPOSIT slot-together unit — the one format we sell as a single piece — or commission a small first run of bespoke units for a flagship store or a key retail partner; custom and branded builds carry a minimum order quantity, quoted per project. Let it prove itself where you can watch it: does the store keep it front-of-house, does staff restocking survive contact with reality, does the buyer at head office ask about it? A wooden unit tends to answer those questions emphatically — it's the fixture the store doesn't want to give back.

Then scale on evidence. Your artwork is already stored, the design is already proven, and the rollout can mix formats — bespoke solid units where the placement justifies them, flat-pack slot-together for the wider estate, identical branding across both. That's how a modest first order becomes a national programme, and it's precisely how several of our longest-running client relationships started.

One plain ESPOSIT unit is a real order to us. It's also the cheapest market research you'll ever commission.

Why we don't publish prices

Because a public price list for bespoke manufacturing is a fiction, and we'd rather not open the relationship with one. A rate card either pads every job to cover the worst case, or lowballs to win the click and claws it back in extras. Neither is a price — both are marketing.

We quote per project instead: your product, your sizes, your branding, your quantity, your deadline. The number you get is the number you pay, and it comes attached to a branded mock-up so you can see precisely what it buys. That's not evasive. It's what honest looks like in a bespoke trade.

How to get an accurate price (one email)

Send us three things: the product, the store count, the deadline. Photos and rough dimensions help; vector artwork can come later.

We'll come back with format advice — FSDU, counter unit, crate display or shelving — a branded visual, and a project quote. From flagship bespoke FSDUs like those we've built for L'OR Coffee and Áine Chocolates, to crate rollouts like Dole's Go Organic and Fyffes', to a national programme across Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US. Typical lead time: a few weeks from the approved mock-up and payment.

FAQs

Is there a minimum order? For custom work, yes — bespoke and branded builds carry a minimum order quantity, quoted per project. Want to start with a single piece? Plain, unbranded ESPOSIT slot-together units can be bought individually — and more than one bigger relationship started exactly that way.

Does branding cost extra? Branding is quoted as part of the build, not bolted on afterwards — engraving, UV print and stained finishes are all specified in the mock-up you approve. Your artwork is stored free, so reorders and additional stores ship faster and without setup charges being reinvented.

Is cardboard ever the right call? For a genuine one-off — a promotion that will never, ever run again — yes, honestly. But audit your last two years of campaigns before you believe that description applies to you. Most "one-offs" turn out to be quarterly.

What's the lead time? Typically a few weeks from the approved mock-up and payment — production is scheduled on receipt of payment. Give us the installation date and we plan backwards from it — the quote will tell you whether your deadline is realistic before you commit, not after.

Why should I trust a manufacturer's cost advice? Fair question — we sell the wooden option, and this article recommends the wooden option. But notice the shape of our incentive: we profit when you buy once. The disposable industry profits when you buy forever. Choose whose incentive you'd rather be on the right side of.

The bottom line

The cheapest display is the one you stop buying. Everything else is a payment plan with a print job.

Request a quote, browse the wooden FSDU range, or read why wooden displays before your next POS budget meeting. Made in Dublin. Priced per project. Built once.