The invention concerns a carton loading device (1) comprising a gripper assembly (20), which comprises at least one gripper (21) arranged to grip a product item (P) from above and to lower the product item (P) into a carton (10). The carton (10) comprises along first parallel sides (11) thereof comprises bottom side flaps (13) and top side flaps (14) and along second parallel sides (12) thereof comprises bottom end flaps (15) and top end flaps (16) and is presented to the gripper assembly (20) in a sleeve state with all flaps (13-16) unfolded. The gripper assembly (20) comprises a pinching means (22) arranged to pinch and hold the top side flaps (14) of the carton (10) and to hold and move the carton (10) and said product item (P) jointly to a carton closing station of the carton loading device (1), where the gripper assembly (20) finally releases said product item (P) and the carton (10) once the bottom side flaps (13) and the bottom end flaps (15) have been folded in and secured.