We really are "Open All Hours".

While one of our selling points is our ability to supply low numbers, often at short notice, we are just as happy with larger runs.

Orders for 12 mugs are not uncommon but neither are orders for 200-1500 mugs. It may be the Premier League Football Club that orders 12 and the Junior Rugby Club based in a small village who requires 200. Just let us know what you need.

Our prices reflect economy of scale but possibly not in the way you might think. While a larger number of mugs has a minor impact on the time it takes to make each unit, the real impact on cost is delivery.  It costs us as much to deliver 6 mugs as it does to send 60. Over sixty the delivery price increases on weight so our discounting for numbers is more about our inclusive delivery costs as it is about making of the products.

The other impact is the design and setting up time for any job which is the same for 10 as it is for 1,000. Once again, we don't charge separately for this but include it in the unit price .... so normally a very small run (under 12) has a greater unit price than a larger quantity.

Nevertheless, we believe we offer some of the best value for money personalised products around on a like for like basis and can match any other mug supplier for service, quality and price on small quanities (and "small" is under 1,000 units).

Our normal delivery time from confirmation of order is less than a week.  But we are flexible – it’s one of our strengths.

If you are really, really in a rush, we can turn things around in 24 hours as long as we don't have to let other customers down by doing so. But some customers want to specify a particular day for delivery.  As long as it's a weekday, we can accomodate that ... even if it's some weeks ahead.

The classic story on how quickly we can react is an FA Cup commemorative mug where a non-league team won a tie on a Tuesday night to go through for a home tie against a much bigger Club on the Saturday.  They wanted a souvenir mug for the occasion (but being superstitious hadn't set up anything before winning the Tuesday fixture) and from scratch, we had them in their shop and ticket office by the Wednesday night in time to sell the mugs with match tickets on the Thursday morning. That took a special effort, and it was reasonably local, (normally we need to add 24 hours for the courier delivery too), .... but it can be achieved.  

We didn't even have time to photograph the mugs featured in the above story but  good examples of our FA Cup specials are pictured.

But we also have a little slogan on our office wall (one of those motivational pictures) - "Better right than rushed" - so in reality in normal circumstances we ask for 7 - 10 notice before you require delivery.

Our current contractor for delivery is DHL (who took over the UK Mail brand). They deliver on UK Mainland (excluding North of Scotland) on a next day basis and while we can time our day of delivery, we can't set a time because the drivers only plan their routes first thing in the morning when they know what delivery or collections they have.  However, with the DHL involvement they do email/text some customers with an on the day delivery warning, normally with a window of about an hour.

Our courier collects from us in the morning or around lunchtime but this can vary, so once again we need time to get a rush order ready by 11am. 

This little section lays out a few other things we can do for customers

• We can supply little and often - thus taking out both risk, the need for storage and tying up money with stock holding - we are a classic JIT operation. 
• We offer a design service using our years of experience, a good imagination and the nerve to tell you if we think your ideas are rubbish or the quality of the artwork you have sent isn't good enough. In the end we both want the same outcome - a great mug. 
• We can split a supply to give you a set of mugs within the same delivery, with a larger overall number to get the quantity price but with maybe six different designs.   For example  ....
  • a sports club featuring favourite players
  • a museum featuring different displays
  • a preserved railway featuring not only different steam locomotives but also very small runs of carriages & wagons which have their enthusiasts, but maybe in limited numbers.
  • Prizes for team competitions featuring 1st, 2nd, 3rd - even our famous "Wooden Spoon" Mug for the team that tried hard but came last.

We charge an extra £1 (that's all) for each change within an order which just about covers our cost for a new screen and a few pence for the operational time it takes.

   

And that is the key. We basically do whatever you want.  Our attitude is that it's YOUR mug and within the constraints of the print area, (and legality) will put whatever you want on the mug .  Of course we will advise and help because, seeing mugs every day, we know what works and what sometimes doesn't - particularly as sometimes a design in the round will look very different than when on a flat screen or a piece of paper.

But if you want green spots on a purple background (which actually does look quite good) then we will produce it.  We sometimes produce a mug we personally hate - but it's your mug, not ours. And our taste won't be the same as other people. 

But as a rule of thumb ...

• Keeping things simple normally produces the smartest mugs.
• Making things too "busy" can, on occasion, look a bit of a mess.
• Remember that a person can only see one side of a mug at a time so a design that looks great "flat" can be confusing "in the round".

Finally - the real extra we can offer is ourselves. We like to think we offer great personal service, that we don't let people down, that we do what we say we are going to do, on time and with a smile.  :-)