Branded Cups

Branded cups do two jobs at once. They eliminate single-use plastic from your event, and they put your logo, sponsor or message into the hand of every customer at the bar. Done well, a branded reusable cup becomes the most cost-effective piece of merchandise you'll ever produce, fans keep them, sponsors love them, and they continue carrying your brand long after the event ends.

Drinksmate offers two print routes for branded cups. Full-colour IML (In-Mould Labelling) is our flagship process: a printed label is loaded into the mould before the cup is formed, and the molten polypropylene fuses around it. The artwork ends up sandwiched inside the cup wall, it can't fade, peel, scratch, wash off or sun-bleach. There's no per-colour upcharge, so a four-colour photographic design costs the same to print as a single colour. Single-colour screen print is our cost-effective option for simpler logos and crests, with lower minimum order quantities and shorter setup. Most branded festival, stadium, wedding and corporate cups we ship are full-colour IML; single-colour is the right choice when budget or run size demands it.

Branded festival cups are the most common branded cup we make. Festival organisers use them to carry headline artwork, sponsor logos and year-of-event details, and increasingly to support deposit-return schemes, fans either return the cup for the deposit or keep it as a souvenir, and either outcome is good economics for the festival. Branded stadium cups and branded arena cups are the next-largest segment: full-colour IML lets clubs run kit-launch artwork, sponsor campaigns and matchday commemoratives across the entire concourse, with cups that survive 90 minutes, a wash cycle, and a fan trying to take them home. Branded wedding cups are smaller in run-size but punch above their weight on emotional impact, couples' names, the date, the venue, custom artwork, all permanent in the cup wall. Branded party cups, branded corporate cups, branded hen and stag cups, and branded private-event cups all run on the same processes, with the only real variable being the minimum order quantity.

Lead times are designed around real event calendars. Standard branded cups deliver in 10 working days from artwork sign-off, fast enough for most events booked at sensible notice. Eco Saver branded cups deliver in 25 working days at our lowest unit price, and this is the route most large festival, stadium and venue clients take when ordering in advance. Plain UKCA-marked stock dispatches in 5 working days from our UK warehouse for last-minute requirements or generic deposit schemes. Free UK mainland delivery is included on every order. For genuine sub-48-hour emergencies, our sister brand expresscups.co.uk handles emergency stock and rush-printed cups.

Minimum order quantities depend on cup model and print process. Single-colour screen print starts lower than full-colour IML, typically a few hundred cups versus a few thousand, but both are accessible for events that haven't run a branded cup before. Pricing scales hard with volume: our cheapest branded cup at high volume is the half-pint single-colour print on the Eco Saver tier, which works out at £0.33 per cup at 2,000 units. Full-colour IML pricing is similar at scale once volume kicks in. Use the quote form for an exact unit price on your specific cup, print, and quantity.

Every branded cup is manufactured at Tees Valley Plastics in the UK. UKCA at the legal fill line, CE for European events and tours, BPA-free food-grade polypropylene, 100% recyclable at end of life. We can advise on cup model (pint-to-line, pint-to-brim, half-pint, two-pint, stackable, wine, flute), print process, lead time, and deposit-return mechanics, all from one team, all under one roof, all in the UK.

Branded plastic cups, branded reusable cups, custom branded cups: the terminology shifts depending on who is asking, but the product does not. Every cup on this page is rigid, food-grade polypropylene, BPA-free, shatterproof on impact and rated for hundreds of commercial dishwasher cycles. Pint and half pint sizes carry a UKCA mark moulded into the wall at the legal measure, which is what makes them usable on a licensed bar rather than decorative. That specification is the reason branded plastic cups have replaced glassware across outdoor venues, standing areas, poolside bars and festival sites where glass is simply not permitted.

What varies between orders is print and volume, not material. Single colour screen print puts one ink onto the cup wall at the lowest cost per unit, which suits a wordmark, a crest or a sponsor logo that is already one colour. Full-colour IML embeds the artwork inside the wall during moulding, so custom branded cups printed this way reproduce photography and gradients and cannot fade, peel or scuff. There is no per-colour upcharge on IML, so a four-colour design costs what a one-colour design costs. Minimum order across the range is 50 cups, and unit price steps at 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000-plus.

Buyers arrive here from several directions. Event organisers want branded cups for a festival bar or a one-off activation. Venues and breweries want branded reusable cups they can wash and reissue across a season. Marketing teams want custom branded cups as promotional merchandise that outlives a pen or a tote. All three are served from the same production line in Stockton-on-Tees, with the same 10 working day standard lead time, the same 48-72 hour express option, and the same free digital proof before anything is moulded.