Corrugated Sandwich Platter
The corporate sandwich platter is one of the highest-volume formats in catering, and the specification is almost entirely determined by how you cut your…
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Food Trays for Catering Companies
Catering packaging has a harder job than restaurant packaging because of the journey. Food is plated in your kitchen and eaten somewhere you do not control, after being carried, driven, carried again and left on a table. Most packaging complaints in catering are really about one of those five stages.
The other thing catering packaging does — which nothing else in food service does as reliably — is generate new business. A tray opened in front of twelve people in an office is twelve impressions, and if your name is not on it, the people who liked the food have no way to find you.
Tell us what you serve
Describe the operation and roughly how many trays you get through. We come back with the formats that fit, with pricing — usually within one working day.
Building a catering packaging range
Most caterers accumulate packaging rather than specifying it. Working through this order produces a coherent range instead of a cupboard of mismatched boxes.
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Start with your three highest-volume orders
Not your most impressive ones. The sandwich lunch, the breakfast round and the buffet drop-off are where your packaging spend actually goes.
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Fix a footprint family
Two or three footprints that stack together in a van beat six that do not. This one decision saves more time and van space than anything else on the list.
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Decide the closure per format
Fitted lid for transport, window lid where the client sees it first, film seal where liquid is involved.
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Add the header board where it earns its place
Buffet drop-offs benefit enormously; boardroom deliveries do not need it.
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Print last, on the dieline
One colour on kraft, everywhere, beats full colour on your flagship item and plain boxes for everything else.
The format for each job
| Order type | Format | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate sandwich lunch | Sandwich platter | Sized to your cut; the lid is a meeting-room-facing surface |
| Hot buffet drop-off | Corrugated catering tray | Holds foil pans; header board brands the buffet line |
| Grazing and canapé orders | Party tray with lid | Divided sections keep a mixed selection composed |
| Breakfast and pastry rounds | Bakery display tray | Shallow, grease-resistant, quick to fill |
| Premium and gifting | Rigid catering platter | The packaging carries part of the price |
| Individual boxed lunches | Lunch tray | Prints in full colour; stacks in a delivery bag |
The failures we get asked to fix
Almost every caterer who changes supplier does so because of one of these five things.
- Lids that pop off in the van — insufficient overlap for the tray depth, or a base that flexes under load.
- Bases that sag when lifted from the middle, so the arrangement slides before the lid comes off.
- Trays that will not stack loaded, because nobody specified corner posts for the van stack.
- Depths sized to average food rather than the tallest garnish, so lids crush the presentation.
- Plain packaging on every delivery, quietly costing referrals nobody measures.
On international catering work
We supply caterers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and the format conventions genuinely differ. UK sandwich rounds and cuts are not the same as US ones; Australian buffet portions and event conventions differ again; Canadian corporate catering sits somewhere between the US and UK patterns.
That matters because sizing a tray from an American standard for a UK operation produces a platter that does not suit the food. We size from your product rather than from a regional norm, which is one of the reasons we ask for photographs of a packed platter rather than a nominal dimension.
Trays that suit this work
Picked for the specific demands described above rather than as a general list.
Corrugated Catering Tray
This is the working catering tray: fluted, deep, strong enough to hold several full foil pans, and usually built with a raised header board that turns t…
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Catering Tray with Lid
The lidded catering tray is the format that most drop-off caterers standardise on, because it is the only one that solves the whole journey.
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Corrugated Party Tray with Lid
A party tray is a divided platter under a clear lid.
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Rigid Catering Platter
Rigid platters are what you use when the packaging is part of the price.
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Custom Printed Catering Tray
Catering is the one part of food service where packaging routinely converts new business.
View tray & get pricing →Browse the wider ranges
Questions from catering companies
How many footprints should a catering business stock?
Two or three that stack together, rather than six that do not. A coherent footprint family saves more van space and loading time than any other single decision, and it makes stock control considerably simpler.
Is printed packaging worth it for a caterer?
It is one of the few places in food service where packaging demonstrably generates business, because a tray is opened in front of a room of potential customers. One colour on kraft across every tray you use beats full colour on one flagship item.
Will trays stack loaded in a van?
Only if specified for it. Stack strength comes from corner posts rather than the base. Tell us the stack height and the loaded weight and we will build in margin rather than working to a theoretical limit.
Can you match the trays we already use?
Yes. Send a base and a lid and we will match the footprint, depth and overlap, so your racks, van shelving and portioning all stay unchanged while the branding improves.
What about hot food in board trays?
Board catering trays are designed for ambient and chilled service. Hot food generates steam that softens board and spoils presentation. For hot buffet work, use foil pans inside a corrugated carrier rather than filling the board tray directly.
How far ahead should we order?
For a first custom run, allow time for a dieline round, artwork approval and production — and note that artwork approval on the client side is usually the longest stage. Repeat orders are considerably faster because the die exists.
Do you supply allergen and menu labelling?
We print what you supply on a clearly defined panel, and the inside of a lid is the best place for it. What the panel must say is a regulatory question that differs between the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and that content has to come from you.
Can we run client-specific designs?
Yes, and it is cheaper than most caterers expect. The cutting die is shared across designs, so an additional client-branded version carries plate cost only.
Packaging for catering companies, priced properly
Send the food, the volumes and the country you take delivery in. We reply with formats, material options and a full quote including freight.