A Guide for Printed Coffee Cups

Both Reusable and Take away coffee cups are a fantastic branding opportunity. Each of our different coffee cup product lines costing just a few pennies to print, ensuring great value to use them for marketing and promotion of your organisation.

The information below is a general guide to printing coffee cups and explains some of the options that may be available to you. As specialists in re-useable coffee cups, Branded Coffee Cups can offer help and advice and are more than happy to spend some time with you discussing how to best achieve your objectives. This advice is free of charge of course and we will guide your through the journey from order, production, delivery all the way through the event as well as post-event if required.

A Printed Coffee Cup

Getting value from printed reusable coffee cups and takeaway coffee cups

Ensure the cups and branding will be seen by users, otherwise it’s less effective. Do you want them to be seen my media channels, the press or on social media promoting your event, around the office or as a giveaway at a conference or exhibition? Does your design fit in with your brand, whether subtle or standing out? Are the cups to be taken home by users as a keepsake or for their daily commute to ensure the cups help create lasting impressions and a daily reminder of your companies’ contribution to its corporate social responsibility?

If you have got an idea for your coffee cup, get in touch and we can collaborate to put your idea and plan into place and achieve your goals.

What are the minimum quantities for Branded Coffee Cups?

If you have got anything printed before you will know that a significant proportion of the cost is in the set-up (origination). These are fixed costs that are the same regardless of whether you print one glass or one thousand glasses. In other words, economies of scale play a big part and the more you get the cheaper the reusable cups are.

Minimum print runs begin at 60 units for Americano coffee cups and 144 bamboo coffee cups.

If you have multiple events during the year, calculate the total quantity and get quotes for the minimum and maximum. This will give you a guide as to how the price changes and this will help you make the decision on the final quantity allowing you to consider cashflow, storage and other requirements to suit your needs.

Printing small batches for delivery is less cost effective, Branded Coffee Cups will work to give you honest advice learned from many years in the niche industry to ensure your budget goes as far as possible.

What are the lead times for printed coffee cups?

Our full colour IML (in-mould label) printed cups are printed at the point of manufacture. On a single production line, cups are formed, printed, packed and despatched on a single robotised production line with minimal human intervention. The minimum order quantity begins at 240 Americano units or higher with bamboo cups. In order to take advantage of this we ask for 25 working days’ notice to ensure we can deliver your cups on time to the event.

We also offer post manufacturing printing techniques that involve pad and screen printing. These methods are faster, more flexible, and more suited to smaller volumes. We ask for 15 working days from order completion until delivery but can sometimes work with shorter lead times as well.

How many colours?

We offer branded coffee cups in one or two colours usually with options on the lids and grips as well as the cup bodies allowing you to create a design that fits in with your brand and marketing plans. We also offer full colour in-mould label (IML) printing in higher quantities.

Silk screen printing is when the colours are non-tonal. Full colour is needed for when there are multiple colours which may also be blended and toned (as in a photograph for example). Full colour can be referred to as ‘four colour’ because full colour uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (CMYK) 

How many positions?

Do you want a print on the silicone grip or the cup body itself? Or do you want a continuous ‘full wrap’ print all around the coffee cup?

The large fully automated factory-based printing machines used for IML printing can do all above combinations for the same cost.

However, post production printing like silk screen printing requires additional processes for each extra colour and position. Therefore, the more complicated the design with extra colours or positions, the higher the unit cost.

Wrap Around Print Coffee Cup

What to do next

Once you have thought about and decided what you want to achieve, we then need to make it happen. You may want to get some samples or photos, as well as prices before moving forwards with your enquiry.

 

 

 

 

Information we need from you

What style of cup and size is wanted? Consider shape, look and feel as well as the size.

How many am I going to need? This can be difficult so let us know the highest, lowest and an average if that is easier.

Is my artwork ready? We can advise on artwork and ask for it to be in high enough resolution so that when wrapped around the cup the quality is still high.

Please send the logo or artwork in AI, EPS or PDF vector format if possible as this is best for our team of designers. We will always produce an on screen visual for approval before any cups go to print.

On what day do my glasses need to be delivered? Very important to ensure we have enough time to meet any deadlines.

Does my delivery point have any special requirements? Timed deliveries and restricted access if there is a high volume of cups being delivered, these things can easily be overlooked. Fork lift trucks may be required on site or a delivery vehicle with a tail lift.

We hope you have found this article a useful. If we can help further, please feel free to call us. We are happy to help 0161 4456867 or 07925-090-531. We are available 24/7 via email on support@brandedcoffeecups.co.uk