Calculating your annual napkin requirement
Annual requirement comes from three numbers: covers per day, napkins per cover, and days open per year. Multiply them and you have the annual quantity. Accuracy rests on the second number — napkins per cover runs from one to three depending on how the venue serves.
The formula
Covers per day × napkins per cover × days open = annual quantity. A restaurant doing 120 covers a day, at two napkins per cover, open 330 days, uses roughly 79,200 napkins a year.
How many per cover?
Seasonal venues
Where a venue is not open year round, days open and the intensity of the season have to be read together. In beach clubs and hotels the summer cover count sits far above the average; calculating on an annual mean produces an order that runs out.
Why annual
Quantity is the largest single lever on unit price in printed goods. Ordering the annual requirement at once lowers unit price, at the cost of storage space and tied-up cash. The decision sits between those two.
Allowing for storage
Paper takes up volume and is affected by damp. Before committing to an annual order, measure how many cartons a dry, shaded area will hold; carton dimensions and units per carton are the inputs.
Frequently asked
- How much does an annual order reduce the price?
- It depends on the quantity break. Because setup cost is divided across more units, the drop is felt most in the first breaks.
- Can delivery be split?
- Yes. The order can be priced on total quantity and shipped in batches, which is the usual answer to a storage constraint.
Last updated: 2026-09-13