What are the profit margins on plastic storage containers?

This is a Quora question.  This is my answer.

The general goal in consumer products is 20% EBITDA (earnings before interest and taxes) profit margins.

But these are commodity products and the category is probably competitive, so it’s possible EBITDA is less, may 10%-15%.

Cost of Good Sold (COGS) on a product like this is probably 15% – that is raw materials+manufacturing+packaging+shipping to warehouse.

Retailer margin (markup from wholesale) depends on the channel – anywhere from 14% to around 50%.

So, when you break it all down, the costs are all in marketing, sales and distribution. Prices probably are not that high because this is a commodity product and many competitors, thus less ability for one to charge higher prices.