A box of unused printed takeaway menus with out of date prices

How Many Menus Should You Print? The Over-Ordering Trap

September 16, 2026

Print what you will use before your prices next change. For most takeaways and small restaurants handing menus across the counter or through a letterbox, that works out at 2,500 to 5,000, not 20,000. A bigger box always looks cheaper per menu, and that is the trap. If your prices move before you get through the box, the menus left inside it are not a bargain. They are paper you paid for and cannot use.

Why bulk menu printing looks like the obvious choice

Because the price ladder rewards volume hard. A5 flat menus, 130 GSM gloss, double sided, are £89.32 for 1,000 and £115.12 for 5,000. That is five times the menus for about 29% more money, and the per-menu cost falls from 8.9p to 2.3p. Looked at that way, ordering the bigger box seems like the only sensible move, and for a takeaway with a settled menu and steady footfall, it usually is. Full ladders for every format are on the menu printing prices page.

A box of unused printed takeaway menus with out of date prices

How much does bulk menu printing cost?

A5 flat menus run from £89.32 for 1,000 to £115.12 for 5,000. A4 folded menus, which carry a fuller menu across four pages, run from £108.34 for 1,000 to £249.14 for 5,000. Prices correct as of September 2026. The table below shows both ladders side by side, with the per-menu price and the number of menus you would be left holding if your prices changed exactly halfway through the box.

Format and quantity	Price	Per menu	Menus left if prices change halfway
A5 flat, 1,000	£89.32	8.9p	500
A5 flat, 2,500	£99.01	4.0p	1,250
A5 flat, 5,000	£115.12	2.3p	2,500
A4 folded, 1,000	£108.34	10.8p	500
A4 folded, 2,500	£182.02	7.3p	1,250
A4 folded, 5,000	£249.14	5.0p	2,500

That last column is the whole point. At 5,000, half the box is 2,500 menus, which is a bigger print run on its own than most small takeaways need in a normal month. If your prices are wrong on any of them, you paid full price for scrap paper, and you still have to reprint before you can hand out anything correct.

Is there a menu printing minimum order?

No. There is no minimum order here, so a short run of 1,000 or 2,500 is a genuine option, not a compromise you pay extra for. The A5 flat menu starts at £89.32 for 1,000 with free UK delivery included, which makes a small, accurate run cheap enough to reorder every few months rather than gamble on one large box lasting a year.

Why do menu prices change?

Because your ingredient costs move, and not in one direction. The Foodservice Price Index, tracked monthly by Prestige Purchasing and NielsenIQ across 10.7 million transactions, fell 1.4% in March 2026, then jumped 1.8% in June 2026, the largest single-month move of the year. That is volatility, not a steady climb, and it means a menu priced in spring can be wrong by summer either way.

"The 1.8% month-on-month spike is a stark reminder of how fragile the food supply chain remains." Shaun Allen, CEO of Prestige Purchasing, 24 July 2026.

Labour costs move on a fixed date rather than drifting. The National Living Wage rose from £12.21 to £12.71 on 1 April 2026, a change confirmed by gov.uk from the Autumn Budget. Any takeaway that pays at or near that rate had a real reason to look at its menu prices on that date, whatever its food costs were doing.

What do you do with menus when the price is wrong?

If the menu itself is still right and only a price has moved, cover it with a sticker rather than reprinting the whole run. A roll of 1,000 stickers is £124.00, which is cheaper than most reprints and quick to apply by hand. The sticker roll product covers the sizes takeaways use for this.

If the menu needs a proper reprint, there is no fee for getting it right. Design is free, you pay 20% by card when I send the first draft, and the balance once the design is signed off and before anything goes to print. A corrected reprint later costs the same way, so ordering a smaller box now and reprinting sooner is not a penalty. It is one design fee spread across two shorter runs instead of one long gamble.

How many menus should you actually order?

Count how many you hand out or drop in a normal month, then multiply by how many months you expect your current prices to hold. A takeaway giving out 400 menus a month with prices it changed three months ago and expects to hold for another three should order around 1,200 to 1,500, not 10,000. A busy chippy doing letterbox drops in bulk is a different calculation again, closer to the volumes covered on the leaflet distribution costs page than to counter menus.

Laminated or wipeable table menus sit outside this maths entirely, because the price is not printed on the sheet in the same way and one menu lasts through many changes. That trade-off is covered on the menu paper and lamination guide. For a disposable takeaway menu, the rule holds: match the run to the shelf life of your prices, not to the lowest per-unit figure on the price list.

Frequently asked questions

What is the ideal number of menus to print for a takeaway?

Most independent takeaways use 2,500 to 5,000 flat menus between price changes. Work it out from your own numbers: how many you hand out or drop in a month, multiplied by how many months your prices tend to stay fixed. A shop with steady prices and high footfall can safely go higher.

Is it cheaper to print more menus at once?

Per menu, yes. A5 flat menus fall from 8.9p each at 1,000 to 2.3p each at 5,000. But the saving only counts if you use the whole box before a price changes. A cheap menu you cannot use is not a saving, it is stock sitting in a cupboard.

Is there a minimum order for menu printing?

No. Runs start at 1,000 for A5 flat menus at £89.32, with no minimum order requirement attached. A short, accurate run is a normal order here, not an exception you pay a surcharge for.

What should I do if my menu price is wrong on printed stock?

Cover the wrong price with a sticker rather than binning the whole box. A roll of 1,000 stickers is £124.00. For a full reprint, design is free and the balance is only due once the new design is signed off, so a correction later costs the same as getting it right first time.

How often do restaurant menu prices actually change?

There is no fixed schedule, which is the point. The Foodservice Price Index moved down 1.4% in March 2026 and up 1.8% in June 2026, tracked monthly by Prestige Purchasing and NielsenIQ. Wage costs also moved on a fixed date, with the National Living Wage rising on 1 April 2026, confirmed by gov.uk.