Lead Times Restaurants Should Plan For
By The Velocity Wear Team
New uniform takes 10 to 15 working days to build once artwork is approved, with delivery transit after that. For a venue already trading, that is easy to absorb. For an opening, work backwards from the first trading shift and add a fortnight in front for approval, because a launch has a dozen other decisions competing for the same signature.
How quickly can new uniform reach the floor?
Three weeks is a realistic figure for a straightforward order with clean artwork, counting the build and transit but not your internal decision-making. Add the approval stage and a month is the number to put in the plan. The production window does not shorten because the order is urgent; what changes is how much room there is if something needs fixing.
A venue replacing worn shirts should therefore order while the current set is still serviceable, not once half the team is in unbranded black.
Put the order in the same planning cycle as anything else with a manufacturing lead time. Operators are used to ingredients arriving in days and furniture arriving in months, and uniform sits awkwardly between the two, which is why it tends to be remembered late. A recurring entry in the diary solves it more reliably than good intentions.
When should an opening date drive the order?
From the moment the date is real enough to have a lease against it. Uniform is one of the few opening items with a fixed manufacturing lead time, unlike furniture that can be chased or signage that can be rushed. Get the artwork approved early and the rest of the launch can slip without touching the kit.
Order for the soft launch rather than the grand opening, because staff need to be in uniform for training shifts and the first friends-and-family service. That pulls the date forward by a week or two more than most operators plan.
Which step in the schedule is most often underestimated?
Approval, and specifically getting a usable logo file. A restaurant brand often exists as a signwriter's artwork or a social media crop, neither of which prints well on fabric at chest size. Finding the original vector takes days, and redrawing it takes longer. Start that hunt on day one.
Transit is the second. The build window covers production only, so shipping to the UK, USA or Europe is added on top. The habit of building that in deliberately is covered in apparel production lead times explained.
How do you keep a rota covered while the order is in build?
Keep the outgoing uniform in service until the new run lands, and do not throw anything out on the strength of a delivery estimate. If you are changing the look entirely, plan a single changeover date rather than letting the two versions overlap across a weekend, which looks worse on the floor than either version alone.
For a venue that cannot risk any gap, order a size-representative sample early at £150, credited against the bulk order, so the design is settled before the run begins. The garments we build for venues are on the restaurants and hospitality page, with starting prices across the wholesale range.
Where a changeover is unavoidable, do it on a quiet weekday rather than at the end of a busy week. Someone has to check the cartons against the order, sort by size and issue the pieces, and that is an hour of a manager's time that does not exist on a Friday evening. Booking it as a task rather than assuming it happens in the gaps is the difference between a smooth switch and a pile of unopened boxes in the office.
