Simply Coasters

Trade buyer guide

Branded coasters for cafés, pubs and restaurants

For an independent café, pub or restaurant, the coaster is one of the few branded touchpoints a customer actually picks up. It's also one of the cheapest pieces of hospitality kit you'll buy. Here's how UK operators source them — quantities, spec, budget and the reorder rhythm that keeps you stocked.

Independent cafés

Branded cork coasters give a coffee table a finished look and quietly do brand work all day. Typical reorder cadence: 200–500 coasters every 6–9 months for a busy café.

Pubs and bars

High-turnover venues lose coasters constantly — bin, pocket, spill. Plan for 500–1,000 coasters per quarter on a busy bar; budget for them as a marketing line, not a fixed asset.

Restaurants and hotels

Lower attrition, higher quality bar. Premium 5mm cork or printed bamboo with a clean monogram suits the front-of-house standard most operators want.

What quantity to start with

For a first order, take your cover count, multiply by four, and round up to the nearest 100. A café doing 80 covers a day should start at 500. A pub doing 200 covers a night should start at 1,000. You'll quickly learn your real attrition rate after one reorder cycle and can tighten the numbers from there.

The spec to ask for

The cheapest hospitality coasters look fine on day one and shabby by month three. The spec that holds up:

  • 5mm thickness minimum — anything thinner curls in heat or after a wet wipe.
  • Cork or printed cork — kindest to wooden tables, naturally non-slip.
  • Round corners — chipped square corners are the first thing a manager notices.
  • Flatbed UV print, not sublimation — survives daily wiping with cleaning sprays.
  • One-colour or full-colour logo to brand guidelines, with a digital proof before print.
  • Boxed in 50s or 100s for easy stock counts behind the bar.

Budget

At 500-coaster trade quantities, branded 5mm cork lands at roughly £1.10–£1.40 each with full-colour print and free artwork setup for a clean single-design logo. At 1,000+ the unit price drops further. Treat it as a marketing line — the per-cover cost is pennies.

Reorder rhythm

Set a reorder trigger at 20% remaining stock — that's roughly the lead time we quote (2–3 weeks) for trade reprints from approved artwork. Hold artwork on file with your supplier so reorders are a one-line email, not a full brief.

If you run seasonal menus, time a fresh coaster design with the menu change. It's the cheapest way to refresh how a busy venue feels without redecorating.

Trade orders with Simply Coasters

We supply branded cork coasters to independent cafés, pubs and restaurants across the UK from our Cornwall studio. Trade pricing from 250 units, full-colour flatbed UV print, artwork held on file for fast reorders, and we deliver UK-wide.