Between fitting out a space, hiring staff and finalising a menu, packaging is often the thing new café and bakery owners think about last, right when it needs the most lead time. Here's a practical checklist for getting custom packaging sorted before your launch date, not after it.
Why Packaging Needs to Be an Early Decision
Custom-printed packaging typically takes several weeks from artwork approval to delivery. If it's the last item on your opening checklist, you risk launching with generic stock packaging, or worse, delaying your opening date entirely while you wait for a rush order.
Start With What You'll Use Every Day
Before choosing anything decorative, identify the handful of packaging items your menu genuinely depends on: cups for a coffee-led menu, boxes for a bakery, bags for a grab-and-go retail element. These core items should be ordered first.
A Practical Pre-Launch Packaging Checklist
Drinks: Paper cups, lids, and cup carriers if you expect group orders from day one.
Bakery and food: Cake boxes, greaseproof paper, and napkins.
Takeaway and retail: Grab bags or carrier bags for anything customers take away.
Branding extras: Stickers are a flexible, lower-cost way to add branding across multiple packaging types before committing to fully custom print runs on everything.
Staff uniform: A basic apron range gives your team a consistent look from opening day.
Shopfront and loyalty: A branded A-board pavement sign tells passers-by you have opened, and printed loyalty cards turn your first weeks of curious visitors into regulars.
Don't Over-Order for Day One
It's tempting to order heavily for a big opening, but actual demand in the first weeks of a new business is genuinely hard to predict. Order a reasonable starting quantity of your core items and plan a faster reorder cycle for the first month or two while you learn your real usage rate.
Timeline It Backwards From Launch
Work back from your opening date: allow time for artwork design and approval, then production (commonly around 5 weeks), then delivery and any final adjustments. For most new openings, that means starting packaging decisions at least 6-8 weeks before launch, not during the final fortnight of fit-out.
Opening Sooner Than That?
If your launch date is less than five weeks away, bags do not have to be the item you go without. Our Express Grab Bags, Express Flat Handle Bags and Express Twisted Handle Bags are printed in the UK and delivered around 2 weeks after artwork approval, from just 250 bags, which also suits the smaller first order recommended above.
Launch With Packaging That's Ready, Not Rushed
A great opening deserves packaging that's planned, not scrambled together in the final week. Start with paper cups and cake boxes for your core menu, and build outward from there well ahead of your launch date.