Every event organiser eventually arrives at the same three questions. How do we get our logo on a cup, what does it cost, and how long does it take? This is the complete answer, written by the team that actually mould and print the cups.
We are Drinksmate. We make branded reusable plastic cups out of our facility in Stockton-on-Tees, and we have shipped more than ten million of them in the past three years. Festivals, stadiums, arenas, weddings, hen and stag dos, corporate events, hospitality venues, the lot. Everything below is what we tell our buyers when they pick up the phone.
Why cups with your logo work as event marketing
A branded cup is the most cost-effective piece of merchandise you can hand out at an event. A festival t-shirt costs around £8 to produce and reaches one person. A cup with your logo lands at 33 pence at high volume on our half pint single colour print, gets passed between every person serving and being served all weekend, and roughly half of them go home in someone's bag as a souvenir. That is branding the venue has already paid for, walking around for the next twelve months.
The economics get better the deeper you look. A reusable branded cup at a 5,000 capacity festival serves up to 250 drinks across a weekend before it is washed and packed away, so a 10,000 cup print run can comfortably cover a 50,000 attendance event. Compare that to single use, where you would be ordering 250,000 disposable cups, paying for waste removal, and finishing the weekend with 250,000 dead pieces of plastic to dispose of.
Print methods explained: single colour and full colour IML
Cups with your logo come in two main flavours.
Single colour screen print sits on the outside of the cup. Setup is quick, lead times are shorter at smaller volumes, and the print produces clean, bold results for one-colour wordmarks, simple logos and crests. It is the right call for a single weekend run where the artwork does not need to survive years of dishwasher cycles.
Full colour IML (in-mould labelling) is the premium route. The printed label is loaded into the injection moulding tool before the cup is formed, and the molten polypropylene fuses around it. The print becomes part of the cup wall, not a layer on top of it. There is no per colour upcharge, so a four colour photographic design costs the same to print as a single colour. IML survives hundreds of commercial dishwasher cycles without fading, peeling or scratching, which makes it the right call for stadium concourses, deposit return schemes and any cup that needs to live across multiple seasons.
Which print method should I choose?
The honest answer: single colour for short runs and simple branding, full colour IML for everything that needs to last or look premium. If you are between the two, send us your artwork and event spec via the quote form, and we will tell you which one fits.
What artwork file you need to send us
Send us a vector file. PDF, AI or EPS all work. Make sure the file uses Pantone colours or has the colour values clearly specified, the logo is converted to outlines or the fonts are embedded, and any white elements that need to print white are set as a separate layer or noted clearly. If you only have a low-resolution PNG or JPG, send it across anyway. Our studio team can usually rebuild it cleanly, although it adds a day or two to the artwork stage.
A useful checklist before you press send: is the artwork the right way around (cups print mirror reverse on some methods), have you supplied the brand colours in the right format, and is everything you need on the cup actually included in the file you are attaching? Half the artwork delays we deal with come from missing files, not from anything technical.
Pricing: what cups with your logo actually cost
Pricing is volume-driven. Our cheapest branded cup at high volume is the half pint single colour print on the Eco Saver tier, which works out at 33 pence per cup at 2,000 units. Full colour IML pricing is higher per cup at the entry level but tightens up at scale. Plain unbranded stock starts lower again, dispatching from our UK warehouse in five working days for last-minute requirements.
Volume tiers kick in at 50, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 plus units, and per-unit cost drops at each step. A 250-unit order is small-event territory. A 1,000-unit order suits a regional festival or a multi-day venue run. Anything beyond 5,000 is bulk in the procurement sense, and that is where the conversation about pallet quantities and stock holding starts.
For exact pricing on your specific cup, print method and quantity, use the quote form. We come back inside the hour.
Lead times for branded cups
Two production tiers, plus a same-week option for genuine emergencies.
Standard branded cups deliver in 10 working days from artwork sign-off. That is the route most events take when they have planned ahead by a few weeks. Eco Saver delivers in 25 working days at our lowest unit price. This is the route festivals, stadium clubs and venue chains take when they are ordering for next season, and it is where the cheapest branded cup pricing lives. For sub-48-hour turnarounds on urgent printed orders, our sister site Express Cups handles emergency production. Same factory, same UK manufacturing, faster tier.
The mistake we see most often: orders that come in late not because the buyer left it late, but because internal artwork sign-off slipped. Get your artwork through marketing or your branding team before you talk to a manufacturer. The factory can move fast. Your sign-off chain usually cannot.
Common mistakes to avoid when ordering branded cups
Five mistakes worth dodging.
First, ordering before you have decided on the cup model. A pint to line cup is 568ml at the line and gives you the perfect head of beer. A pint to brim cup is 568ml at the rim and maximises soft drinks and cocktails. They look similar but they serve different bar setups. Pick first, then print.
Second, under-ordering on volume to save money. The unit price jumps you will see at higher tiers usually pay for themselves in a single weekend if you have actually got the demand to use them. Cut volume only if you are confident you will not run out.
Third, leaving artwork to the last minute. We can do 10 working days from sign-off comfortably. We cannot compress your internal sign-off chain.
Fourth, choosing single colour for a cup that needs to last years. If the cup is going into stadium rotation, festival deposit return scheme or any kind of multi-season run, IML is the right call. Single colour is for shorter lives.
Fifth, not asking for a free 3D digital proof before production starts. Any reputable manufacturer will produce one as standard. It should not be an extra line item on the invoice.
Festival cups, stadium cups, custom plastic cups: what the labels actually mean
Worth a quick pass through the terminology, because the same cup tends to get called different things depending on which event it is being ordered for. Festival cups usually means a UKCA marked reusable pint or half pint with a printable surface area large enough to carry headline event branding. Stadium cups are the same cup in spec, branded for sports or arena use, and you can browse the stadium cups range direct. Custom plastic cups is the umbrella term that covers any of the above plus weddings, parties and corporate events. Branded cups means anything with print on it, full stop, which is what you will find on the branded cups hub.
If you want to read about the difference between personalised, branded and custom in plain English, the personalised vs branded vs custom guide breaks it down further.
If you have an event coming up, browse the full cup range, the branded cups landing page, or send us your specifications via the quote form. We come back inside the hour with a price, lead time and free 3D digital proof.