Min. 100 units · 3–5 days
Cardboard Catering Trays
Custom Food Trays
Specify thisCustom Food Packaging
Catering Boxes
Custom catering Boxes produced to your size and substrate, with printing and finishing handled in one run.
- Minimum order
- 100 units
- Production
- 3–5 business days
- Construction
- rigid box
- Delivery
- US, UK, Canada, Australia
No obligation
Start a quote
Name, email, phone and what you are packing and the finish you have in mind. Attach artwork if you have it. We reply with a specification and a written price, usually within one business day.
The build detail that decides catering boxes
Base rigidity across the long span decides everything. Corrugated or a laminated base is usually needed; a folding carton grade will not hold.
Catering Boxes are built from greyboard wrapped in a printed or specialty paper, assembled by hand so the walls stay rigid and the lid holds its shape.
What catering boxes have to cope with
Catering Boxes hold a full platter order — sandwiches, wraps or hot trays — carried to an office or venue. That is the starting point for the specification, because base rigidity across the long span decides everything. Corrugated or a laminated base is usually needed; a folding carton grade will not hold.
In service they are used for office deliveries and event drops where one person carries a loaded box some distance.
Where catering boxes are actually used
Catering Boxes are specified for office deliveries and event drops where one person carries a loaded box some distance. Base rigidity across the long span decides everything. Corrugated or a laminated base is usually needed; a folding carton grade will not hold.
- Office deliveries and event drops where one person carries a loaded box some distance
- Luxury retail and gifting
- Jewellery and watch presentation
- Premium electronics
Holding the contents in place
Where a product needs to be held still, a fitted insert cut to its profile does more for damage rates than a heavier outer board. It usually costs less too, because you can drop a grade on the outer.
- Magnetic closure
- Ribbon pull
- Foam insert
- Fabric lining
- Grosgrain ribbon tie
The substrate for catering boxes
B-flute corrugated or a laminated base. A folding carton grade will not hold an 18 in span under a full platter.
The options we would consider for this format are below; base rigidity across the long span decides everything. Corrugated or a laminated base is usually needed; a folding carton grade will not hold.
- 1200gsm greyboard with printed wrap
- 1400gsm greyboard
- Specialty textured wrap paper
- Linen-finish wrap
- Soft-touch laminated wrap
Sizing catering boxes
Large footprints, commonly 18 × 12 × 3 in through 22 × 14 × 4 in, and always shallow relative to their span.
Send the contents rather than a box size. Buyers judge a catering box by how it looks closed, and never test lifting a full one by the ends, which is how it is always actually carried.
Holding catering boxes before service
The base flexes and folds in the middle when lifted from the ends, tipping the contents against one another.
Paperboard also absorbs moisture from the air until it equalises with its surroundings. If stock sits more than about six weeks in unconditioned space, a moisture-resistant coating is worth its small premium.
Finishing catering boxes
Flexo on corrugated rather than offset — at this size and quantity, litho lamination rarely earns its cost.
The finishes below are quoted line by line. Each is an additional pass, so dropping one is a real saving rather than a rounding difference.
- Foil stamping
- Embossing
- Debossing
- Soft-touch lamination
- Spot UV
- Edge painting
Proofing before the run
Foil, soft-touch and deboss all read differently in person than on a screen, so we recommend a printed prototype rather than a digital proof alone for anything finish-led.
Sample costs are normally credited against the production order.
How an order runs
Tell us what goes inside, how many you need and when. Those three answers are enough for us to specify and price the job properly.
A dieline template follows, then a proof. For finish-led work we usually recommend a physical prototype at this point, because foil and soft-touch do not read accurately on screen.
What buyers get wrong with catering boxes
Buyers judge a catering box by how it looks closed, and never test lifting a full one by the ends, which is how it is always actually carried.
The rest of these come up often enough across the format to be worth stating plainly.
- Specifying board weight without saying how hot or greasy the contents are.
- Forgetting that a pack carried at an angle in a courier bag behaves differently to one on a counter.
- Choosing a vented lid for a dish that needs to stay hot, or a sealed one for a dish that needs to stay crisp.
- Ordering a year of stock that then sits through a humid summer.
Reference
Catering Boxes at a specification level
| Product | Catering Boxes |
|---|---|
| Category | Custom Food Packaging |
| Construction | Hand-wrapped rigid greyboard |
| Board thickness | 1.5 mm – 2 mm greyboard |
| Ships as | Pre-assembled, nested where possible |
| Materials | 1200gsm greyboard with printed wrap, 1400gsm greyboard, Specialty textured wrap paper, Linen-finish wrap |
| Printing | Offset-printed wrap, Digital-printed wrap, Screen printing on wrap |
| Finishes | Foil stamping, Embossing, Debossing, Soft-touch lamination, Spot UV |
| Minimum order | Minimum order is 100 units on any format, and unit cost falls sharply as the quantity rises. |
| Lead time | 3 to 5 business days after artwork approval |
| Shipping | Across the US, UK, Canada and Australia |
Specification builder
Specify Catering Boxes in under a minute
Set what you know, leave the rest. Everything here travels with your request, so nothing gets retyped.
- 100-unit minimum
- 3–5 day production
- Free dieline
- No obligation
Catering Boxes
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In practice
Why it is built this way
Sized to the contents
Large footprints, commonly 18 × 12 × 3 in through 22 × 14 × 4 in, and always shallow relative to their span.
The failure worth avoiding
The base flexes and folds in the middle when lifted from the ends, tipping the contents against one another.
Where it is used
Specified for office deliveries and event drops where one person carries a loaded box some distance.
The detail that decides it
Base rigidity across the long span decides everything. Corrugated or a laminated base is usually needed; a folding carton grade will not hold.
This format sits in our custom food packaging range, alongside 33 other made-to-order formats.
Answers
Catering Boxes: service and food safety
Specification, minimums and lead times for catering boxes.
Will a large catering box hold its shape when full?
Only if the base is specified for the span. A shallow box 18 in or more across flexes badly when lifted by the ends, which is how they are actually carried. Send the loaded weight and we will grade the base for it.
Are these food-contact compliant?
We specify food-contact compliant boards and inks where the pack touches food directly. Tell us whether contact is direct or through a liner for catering boxes, because it changes which stocks are available to you.
How do you stop grease showing through?
A grease-resistant coating or a greaseproof liner. Untreated board will always strike through eventually with hot, oily food — that is a property of the material rather than a quality fault, and it is inexpensive to design out.
Will this work as a shipper as well as a gift box?
Rarely without compromise. A box built to present is not built to survive a carrier network alone. A presentation box inside a plain protective outer usually costs less overall than one box trying to do both.
Why do rigid boxes cost more than folding cartons?
Because they are hand-assembled rather than machine-glued, and because the wrap, corner finish and interior lining are each separate operations. They also ship assembled rather than flat, which raises freight. The trade is a structure that feels substantially different in the hand.
Which finishes are worth the money at low quantity?
Ones that read from arm’s length. Soft-touch lamination and deboss change how the whole pack reads; a small foil detail often does not survive the distance between shelf and eye. We quote each pass separately so you can judge.
Do rigid boxes ship assembled?
Yes, which is part of why their freight cost is higher than a folding carton. Collapsible rigid constructions exist and ship flatter, at some cost to the feel of the finished box.
Can you hold the specification for repeat orders?
Yes. Once a first run is approved we hold the board, structure, dimensions, print method and finishes against your account, so a reorder references the same specification exactly rather than being re-derived. That includes the ink formulation, which is what keeps a brand colour consistent between runs rather than drifting a shade each time.
Do you offer recycled or recyclable options?
Recycled grades are available across most of the substrates we run for rigid boxes. Recycled content, kerbside recyclability and certified compostability are three different claims though, so tell us which one you intend to print.
What file format should I send artwork in?
A print-ready PDF or a vector file, with fonts outlined and any raster images at 300 dpi at final size. We supply the dieline to design onto, and prepress checks bleed, safe area and crease clearance before issuing a proof. A wrapped box needs bleed carried around the turn-in as well as the visible face, which is more artwork area than the outside dimensions suggest.
What is the minimum order for catering boxes?
A flat 100 units on any format. Most rigid boxes in this range are quoted from 100 units upward because unit cost falls sharply above that, but the minimum exists so you can validate a structure first.
How long do catering boxes take to produce?
3 to 5 business days after artwork approval, plus freight. Rigid box runs with applied finishes can take longer because each finish is a separate pass, and we confirm a firm date in writing with the quote.
Next step
Get Catering Boxes quoted with the finish
Send the fill size and the volumes you run. We reply with a full specification and a written price, usually within one business day.