What a working farm taught us about branded cups
Some of the best days at work don’t happen in the factory.
Last month we spent a morning at Mrs Dowsons Farm Park, ten miles up the road from our own building in Clitheroe. We went to film, what a typical morning looks like for the team at Mrs Dowsons and how our coffee cups play a part in the day.
Amy, their Food and Beverage Team Leader, walked us round the farm and the activity areas with a coffee in hand, and we came away with a reminder of something we already knew but don’t say often enough: a cup can carry a brand, but it can’t invent one.
Here’s what we saw, what we made for them, and what it taught us about takeaway coffee cups for farm shops and visitor attractions.
Why we film our customers
We could show you our cups on a white background. Most printed cup companies do, and it tells you almost nothing.
What it doesn’t show you is the bit that matters: the cup in someone’s hand, in the place it belongs, doing the job it was made to do. A black double wall cup on a studio backdrop is a product shot. The same cup in someone’s hand on a Lancashire morning is branding.
So we started visiting customers instead. Mrs Dowsons were an obvious place to start. Local, very good at what they do, and daft enough to say yes.
The brief: black, yellow and unmistakably theirs
Mrs Dowsons already had a strong identity: the black and yellow, the arched wordmark, the “farm made ice cream” line underneath. Our job wasn’t to design anything. It was to get that identity onto their takeaway coffee cups without losing any of it.
We went with black double wall cups printed in a single colour. A few reasons that combination works here:
- Black holds up outdoors. A pale cup shows every splash and thumbprint by the time someone’s done a circuit of the farm. Black doesn’t.
- Single colour print is sharper than people expect. One well-chosen colour on a strong base beats four colours fighting each other, and it costs less.
- Double wall means no sleeve. The cup is comfortable to hold straight off, which matters when the coffee is being carried outside in November. It also keeps the print unbroken, with no cardboard band across the middle of the logo.
The result is a cup people actually keep hold of, which is the whole point. Have a look at the branded double wall paper cups range.
“We spent a lot of time listening and finding out about a cup. We were very proud to find the local cup company that we use today.”
Amanda Dowson, Director, Mrs Dowsons Farm Park
Watch Behind the Brand
Film by To Life.
What farm shops and attractions get wrong about branded cups
We see the same three things again and again, and they’re all fixable.
Buying the cup and the lid separately, from different places. It sounds like a saving. It isn’t. Lids and cups have to be matched, because the wrong combination leaks, pops off, or sits proud enough to annoy people. Buy them together and someone else does the checking.
Ordering for summer only. Farm attractions think in ice cream. But a visitor site sells more hot drinks between October and March than most people expect, and the cup carrying that coffee across a car park in the rain is doing more brand work than anything you’ll print all year.
Treating the cup as the end of the list. Napkins, stirrers, straws, bags and cup carriers all sit alongside it, and they all end up in the same photograph. If the cup is smart and everything round it is generic, the effect is lost. Have a look at the accessories range.
None of it is complicated. It just tends to get decided in a hurry.
Congratulations, while we’re here
Mrs Dowsons Farm Park have been shortlisted three times at the British Farming Awards 2026, for Dairy Farmer of the Year, Large Diversification of the Year and Family Farming Business of the Year.
Entirely deserved, and nothing to do with us, we just make the cups. But it’s a good illustration of why we like working with businesses like theirs: the cup only works because everyone behind it does.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Farm shops, cafes, attractions and events are a large part of what we do. We print in Lancashire, so a site like Mrs Dowsons can come and see the presses if they want to. Minimum order is 500 for double wall and 1,000 for single wall.
Single wall is one layer of board and usually needs a sleeve for hot drinks. Double wall has an insulating outer layer, so it’s comfortable to hold without one, and the print runs unbroken around the cup. For outdoor sites, double wall is almost always the right call.
They need to, on a site like this one. Two things help. A darker cup hides splashes and handling marks far better than a pale one, and a double wall cup stays comfortable to hold when it’s being carried across a yard in the cold. Both are worth thinking about before you pick a design.
Not usually. The same branded cup works year round. It’s the volumes that change, not the cup. Visitor sites often underestimate how many hot drinks they sell between October and March, so it’s worth checking last year’s figures before you order.
More questions about ordering, artwork or delivery? They’re answered on our FAQs page.
We have more customer visits lined up over the next few months, so we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you run a farm shop, a cafe, an attraction or anything where people walk around holding a drink, and you want your name on the cup rather than someone else’s, get in touch, or come and see the factory. It’s in Clitheroe, and the kettle’s usually on.
Oliver Alcock is chief executive of The Printed Cup Company, a Lancashire manufacturer of branded recyclable paper cups and PET cold cups, which he acquired from its founders in July 2025. The company has manufactured in Clitheroe since 2005. He writes on manufacturing, sourcing and packaging specification.