DSF

Hi, I have been approached to supply a shop with mugs and coasters. I currently sell mugs £9.99 and coasters £4.99. They just want a small first order in the view to hopefully bigger ones. What sort of price/profit margin would you give them? Any help is much appreciated.

carton of 36 for £5 each

Don't fall into the same trap I always have. Price it very low on the promise of large orders only to find you're printing a very small number!

I'd always prefer to price based on sliding quantity but sometimes it is difficult to do so.

Thanks. I am thinking of giving them a price on the first small order they will get a 45.5% profit margin and larger orders can be 55.5%. Obviously if sold at my retail price.

Just watch out for the old 'bait & switch,' where they put in a large order at the agreed discount then contact you to reduce the order by half. Make sure you agree some terms to avoid this happening.

I don't usually discount for very large orders. I don't get a discount on the blanks and it takes the same length of time to print each blank.

Normal markup for shops is 2.2x (assuming you and them are VAT registered)
Therefore a mug with an RRP of £10 (inc VAT) would therefore be sold to the shop at £4.55 (ex VAT)

Yes. Great answer above although our retailers work on 2.4 rather than 2.2.

We used to do 2.4, and changed to 2.2 a few years back. Some stockists complained, but ultimately kept ordering.

When I wholesale garments to trade customers I let them supply the garments and I just charge my regular printing price. That means I still get my usual price for the work without having to offer discount, with zero outlay for the substrate. The customer saves by not having to paying me my markup on the substrate.
This only applies to larger orders. Anything less than 100 pieces and the customer pays my usual sliding scale, depending on quantity (1+, 10+, 20+, 50+).

Can't see why the same wouldn't work for mugs and coasters. Just make sure you stipulate the customer supplies 5% more than he orders to cover misprints.