A5 takeaway leaflets ready for a door to door distribution run

Takeaway Leaflet Drops in 2026: What They Cost and What Response to Expect

September 16, 2026

The average UK door drop gets a 0.5% response, not the 4% that distribution firms tend to quote when they're selling you a campaign. That figure, and the return on it, £2.90 back for every £1 spent, come from the DMA Door Drop Report 2025, published 19 June 2025. If you're weighing up takeaway leaflet printing and a distribution run, those are the numbers to plan around, not the ones on a distributor's sales page.

Why do leaflet firms say 4% when the real figure is 0.5%?

Because a higher number makes their service look like better value. Some distribution companies advertise response rates of around 4%, and a well targeted campaign might hit that on a good day. But the DMA's own industry-wide measurement, the Door Drop Report 2025 published 19 June 2025, puts the UK average response at 0.5%. Plan your numbers on 0.5% and you won't be disappointed. Plan on 4% and you'll overestimate orders by a factor of eight.

A5 takeaway leaflets ready for a door to door distribution run

How much does it cost to print 1,000 leaflets in the UK?

1,000 A5 flat leaflets, 130 GSM gloss, double sided, with free UK delivery, cost £89.32, which works out at 8.9p each. Order more and the unit cost falls fast.

Quantity	Price	Cost per leaflet
1,000	£89.32	8.9p
5,000	£115.12	2.3p
50,000	£484.02	0.97p

Prices correct as of September 2026. These are A5 flat leaflets, printed and delivered to you. Distribution to doormats is a separate cost, covered below. See the full run of sizes and quantities on our menu and leaflet price list before you decide on a quantity.

How much does Royal Mail Door to Door cost?

Royal Mail charges a minimum of £200 plus VAT per contract, so roughly £240 once VAT is added, whatever the volume. Above that minimum, price is banded by volume and by item weight. Their published example rate for 100,001 to 200,000 items up to 20g is £58.49 per thousand. That's a large-volume band. A single local takeaway drop of a few thousand leaflets won't reach it, so budget close to the £200 plus VAT minimum rather than the lower per-thousand rate quoted for bulk campaigns.

What does a 5,000-leaflet drop cost from start to finish?

Printing and distributing 5,000 A5 leaflets through Royal Mail Door to Door comes to around £355 in total: £115.12 to print, plus around £240 for the distribution minimum with VAT. That's about 7p a leaflet, landed on a doormat rather than just sitting printed in a box.

Item	Cost
Printing, 5,000 A5 flat leaflets	£115.12
Royal Mail Door to Door, minimum charge plus VAT	around £240.00
Total	around £355.12

If you order A5 trade leaflets at this quantity and you're not sure whether 5,000 is the right run for your catchment, our guide on how many menus to print covers how to size a print run before you commit to it.

What response rate should you actually expect?

At the DMA's 0.5% average, a 5,000-leaflet drop should bring back about 25 orders, not the couple of hundred a 4% rate would suggest. Spread £355.12 across 25 orders and each one needs to cover roughly £14 of marketing spend before you know whether the drop earned its keep. Whether that works depends on your average order value and your margin on it, not on the leaflet itself. A takeaway with a healthy margin and a £15 to £20 average order can make that sum work comfortably. One running on thin margins needs to check its own numbers before committing to a repeat drop.

Does anyone still use leaflet drops for takeaways?

Yes. Restaurant and takeaway is the second largest category of UK door drop volume at 18%, behind only local tradespeople at 22%, and 8,564 advertisers used door drops in 2024, according to DMA/JICMAIL 2024 data cited in the DMA Door Drop Report 2025. Leaflet drops haven't been replaced by digital marketing for this trade, they sit alongside it.

When should you drop takeaway leaflets, and what should they say?

Drop before the weekend, not after it. A leaflet that lands on a Thursday or Friday sits on the counter through Friday and Saturday night, the two nights most takeaways do the bulk of their trade. One dropped on a Monday is more likely to be binned before anyone's deciding what to order for dinner on Saturday.

Put your phone number and opening hours in large type, since that's what a kept leaflet gets used for. Show your best sellers with prices rather than a full page of small text. And add a discount code, something like MENU10, so you can trace orders back to the drop instead of guessing at a general uplift in trade you can't attribute to anything specific. A code turns a leaflet drop from a hope into a measurement.

Is a leaflet drop worth it with margins this tight?

It can be, but only if you measure it, because margin has less room in it than it used to. UKHospitality's forecast, published 12 January 2026, puts 2,076 hospitality closures at risk in 2026 without a change to business rates, 963 of them restaurants, with average pub rates up 15% this year. Kate Nicholls put it plainly: "Thousands of venues, particularly neighbourhood restaurants and local hotels, will be forced to close for good as a result of the significant rates rises they're facing." If a share of your margin is already going to a delivery app, it's worth reading how Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats menu rules affect your take-home before deciding how much of a tight marketing budget goes on print and distribution.

Frequently asked questions

How much do 500 leaflets cost?

We print A5 flat leaflets from 1,000 upwards rather than in batches of 500. 1,000 costs £89.32, which is 8.9p each, and most takeaways use that as their minimum order rather than trying to source a smaller run. Prices correct as of September 2026.

What is the cheapest way to print takeaway leaflets?

Volume is the biggest lever. A5 flat leaflets fall from 8.9p each at 1,000 to 2.3p at 5,000 and 0.97p at 50,000, so buying a bigger run cuts the unit cost sharply. Stick to standard flat A5 rather than a folded format, since folding adds a production step and cost. Only order what you can realistically distribute within a few weeks, since a leaflet's value depends on it reaching someone while it's still relevant.

Where can I get takeaway leaflets designed and printed together?

I design every leaflet free of charge, there's no separate design fee. You pay 20% when you see the first draft and the balance once the design is finished, before anything goes to print, with unlimited changes included until you're happy. Turnaround is 5 to 9 working days as standard, or 48 hours if you're stuck for time.

Does the response rate change for a Chinese takeaway or kebab shop specifically?

The DMA's data doesn't split results by cuisine, only by category. Restaurant and takeaway together make up 18% of all UK door drop volume, the second largest category after local tradespeople at 22%. That means leaflet drops are a proven channel for food businesses generally. Cuisine type doesn't change the print cost, the distribution cost, or the response rate you should plan around.

What should I put on a takeaway leaflet so it gets kept, not binned?

Lead with your phone number and opening hours in large type, since that's what a kept leaflet actually gets used for. Show your best sellers with prices rather than covering the page in small text. Add a discount code such as MENU10 so you can trace how many orders the drop produced, rather than guessing from any general change in trade.

When is the best day to drop takeaway leaflets?

Drop before the weekend, not after it. A leaflet delivered on a Thursday or Friday sits on the counter through Friday and Saturday night, when most takeaways do the bulk of their trade. One delivered on a Monday has usually been binned by the time anyone's deciding what to order for Saturday dinner.