It’s a problem that has cut into the budget of every restaurant owner in America: you invest thousands of dollars in a great dining room, a fine menu, and trained staff, then serve them a napkin with no bio about you and your establishment. It’s a lost chance right in front of you, and most operators don’t give it a second thought until the competition down the road gets better.

It’s that very difference that’s making wholesale custom napkins an unspoken norm of restaurants, cafes, and catering suppliers all across the country. Not because it’s in vogue. Because it works.

Why this move is more significant than most operators realize.

A napkin is not a package. It’s not the bag a customer carries through the door or the box on a shelf. A guest has to carry it with them, use it, and interact with it during all visits. The direct contact makes it one of the most consistent branding touchpoints a food business has, and most businesses give it up willingly, by defaulting to blank paper napkins.

Restaurant Napkins,’ logos are printed on napkins, altering the math. A guest wipes their hands and sees your brand again, mid-meal, with no outlay of an ad impression. Scale that up to every table, every shift, every week, and the branding starts to add up.

The true advantage of custom-printed napkins.

Now, it gets tactical. When ordering dinner napkins via a wholesale route, the cost per piece becomes so affordable that it doesn’t compete with your supply budget. Many operators already purchase napkins now by the case on a weekly basis. Trade that for custom-printed napkins, and it doesn’t really affect the price, but the call to remember it will.

Napkin in the kitchen also has to do more than look good; it has to perform in the kitchen, as if it were a real restaurant. A napkin that crumbles when it comes into contact with the sauce or grease tarnishes the whole experience. The print job on top isn’t the only important thing; it’s the ply count and absorbency.

Also, take the compounding effect into account. The customer carries away the branded napkin with their to-go bag. Place it on a desk when having a catered lunch. It appears in an image of food that is uploaded to a website. That doesn’t require any extra work from your employees after the sale.

Actually, Wholesale Napkins is used where?

• Dinner Napkins at each setting, in front of all patrons, without anyone lifting the handkerchief, Full-service restaurants

• Cafes and coffee shops,  nestled in to-go bags with the pastries and coffee. 

• Catering companies, where the napkin may be the only item that’s clearly branded on the table at an event

• Bars and Breweries, a low-cost option to promote identity during high volume of happy hour service

Print options can be a small single colour logo in the corner, or a full custom pattern; the size of your paper napkins can be used for a cocktail service or a full dinner service, depending on your concept.

Quick answers to common questions

Q: Do you find wholesale napkins to be much cheaper than custom orders of a small size?

A: Yes. When ordered in wholesale quantities, these prices are reduced sufficiently that most restaurants can cover the cost without any significant increase to their supply budget.

Q: Could it be used for the actual service of food?

A: Quality food service napkins are designed to be resistant to grease and moisture, and two-ply napkins are better at resisting heavy use than one-ply.

Q: Are there any minimum orders?

A: Your order volume can grow as you go, and you don’t need to purchase any more than what you can use for a season if you are a smaller operator.

Conclusion

Savor a brand with your name on it! Try a brand with your name on it!

At each stop, each visitor picks up a napkin, and every one of them, few marketing media that offer that much exposure for so little effort. No one is using any table you set with blank paper. To have your wholesale custom napkins rolling, call 832-900-9245 or email sales@thedelipaper.com  today at deli paper.