The most useful cases are rarely the biggest ones. This is a run of 6000 printed 200 ml coffee cups, ordered again the following year, and again the year after that — a manufacturer with a staff canteen, a showroom and a trade-fair stand, all of which drink coffee. The client is not named here.
Why the same order three years running
Because a printed cup is not a promotional item, it is consumption. A branded pen sits in a drawer. A cup is destroyed on use, which means the order repeats on a predictable cycle and the buyer never has to justify it as marketing spend — it comes out of the same budget line as the coffee.
That is the sales insight worth taking from this: the items that reorder are the items that get used up. If you sell to a company with a canteen, a reception or a fair stand, the cup is the item you should be quoting.
200 ml is a deliberate size
200 ml fits under most standard coffee machines without adjusting the drip tray, and it is one espresso-plus-milk rather than a mug of filter coffee. Order 300 ml and half the machines overfill it. Check the machine before the size.
Where paper stops being right
- Paper, single wall: cheapest, fine for cold drinks and short coffee. Too hot to hold with a full cup of filter coffee.
- Paper, double wall: holds heat, comfortable to hold, roughly a third more per unit. This is the office standard.
- Reusable PP or rPET: for events with a deposit system, and for any client with a single-use plastic policy. Higher unit cost, but it is not consumed — which means it is a different budget and a different sale.
- IML printed: the artwork is moulded into the cup wall rather than printed on it. Photographic quality, dishwasher-proof for hundreds of cycles, and the right answer when the cup is the product rather than the packaging.
Print notes
Flexo print on paper cups is one to four spot colours and does not do photographic gradients; the artwork wraps but leaves a seam line where the blank is glued, so a design that must not break across the seam needs planning. Leave the top 8 mm clear — that band is under the rolled rim and never prints cleanly.
Products used
Reusable Coffee Cups · IML Printed Reusable Cups · Bio-Based Reusable Coffee Cups · Insulated Travel Mugs. Categories: Reusable Event Cups, Drinkware and Bottles.
