More than a cup

Cup & Carry has carved out a niche meeting the custom packaging needs of cafés and other businesses in Australia who love branding.

South Australian packaging experts Cup & Carry boils its mantra down to just three key words: easy, fun, and fast.

This motto is at the beating heart of the business, and is something founder and CEO Zoe Detmold embodies every day along with her team.

The idea for Cup & Carry came after parent company Detmold Ventures – a family business established in 1948 – saw a gap in the market for packaging solutions tailored to the needs of smaller, time-poor café and hospitality business owners.

“We could see these businesses really wanted to access custom printed packaging, and big quantities were not possible for them,” says Zoe.

This led to the creation of Cup & Carry’s curated product range – a streamlined process where customers can access the business’ self-service option online at any time, upload their artwork file, and place an order when it suits them.

For businesses without access to artwork or design professionals, the company also offers an in-house graphic design service and two rounds of free edits. Zoe says the printed packaging industry can be challenging to navigate for a small café owner, so she was motivated to simplify the process.

“I decided early on that I wanted our service to offer the best of both worlds.  That means online self-service, and also easy access to our awesome team members who are happy to do it all for you,” she says.

“It’s convenient and personal, whichever suits the customer.  Then we always make sure we make it easy for every customer.”

Cup & Carry adopts advanced printing methods, including digital and flexographic (flexo) printing – both high-quality and economic options. It all takes place at its plant in Brompton, South Australia, catering to all different print runs and sizes.

The printed products include tissue and wrapping paper, coffee cups, bags, and lids, as well as food paper.

“For small quantities, there’s no setup costs, the print quality is amazing … you can give us any workable file, as many colours as you like and we can print it,” says Zoe.

The company has grown exponentially since it first came on the market in 2017, with several thousand customers now on board: from regular, promotional, to seasonal printing.

Zoe says the growth comes from Cup & Carry holding itself to its mantra and pushing the business to meet those standards.

“That meant keeping the process and product range easy, making the pricing easily accessible, and making sure the design service is included,” she says.

With today’s packaging materials also doubling as walking billboards for smaller businesses, much consideration is put into how products can be best tailored for the digital world – a printed coffee cup with a funky design could lead to a photo shared to Instagram. Many cups are now printed with QR codes, enabling a variety of customer engagement and activations.

“I think everyone knows it’s a missed opportunity if you’ve got plain packaging … we all know it’s a very crowded market now, and to get engagement and brand awareness is harder than ever,” says Zoe.

Sustainability at the forefront

With sustainability top of mind for many businesses and consumers, it’s a key area for Cup & Carry when approaching its products.

“We are giving our customers good choices for either recyclable or compostable packaging,” says Zoe, noting the company complies with different legislation across Australia.

“It’s important to us we make [that process] simple for our customers, so we can specifically tell them which product complies with their state.”

As for what’s next, Zoe highlights an exciting coup, with the company bringing an Australian-first paper lid to the market in February with two versions – one recyclable, the other recyclable and compostable. She says Cup & Carry will also be the first packaging company globally to offer a custom printed version of the paper lid.

“We’re seeing really fast growth now already, and I think that will continue – we’ll keep on expanding the product range,” she says.

In the meantime, ‘easy, fun, and fast’ remains Cup & Carry’s north star.

“We’ll keep on investing in more digital print technology that makes it easier for small customers to be able to access custom printing,” she says.

“The hospitality industry is such a vibrant industry … digital printing suits it well, so I think the technology will keep evolving in this space – and we’ll ensure Cup & Carry stays ahead of the curve, so we continue offering our quality service to the café sector.” 

For more information, visit cupandcarry.com.au