Sector · QSR & food-service

Every site's packaging cost. One number.

Restaurants, cafes, takeaways and chains are producers under both EPR and PPT - every cup, lid and clamshell now carries an obligation. Packlah rolls up your packaging across every site into one position, and models the recycled-content switches that cut the bill, before you place the order.

Multi-site roll-up
Recycled-content modelling
Cost before the bill
app.packlah.io / group / 14-sites
Group position
14 sites · FY 2026
Rolled up
Total annual compliance cost
£9,180
EPR £6,400PPT £2,780
SiteCups/yrEPRPPT
Soho340k£520£226
Shoreditch410k£627£272
Canary Wharf512k£783£340
Islington288k£440£191
+ 10 more sites£4,030£1,751
The operator's problem

Rising cost, scattered data, and a decision on every lid.

The total is invisible.

Packaging is already a rising line on the P&L. EPR and PPT now sit on top. Run five sites or fifty and the liability is spread across all of them. Most operators don't have a consolidated number. Finance asks; nobody has a confident answer.

Every cup is a compliance decision.

Plain-paper lid or plastic, virgin clamshell or 30%+ recycled - these aren't just procurement calls any more. The recycled-content threshold removes PPT on that line. The format affects your EPR modulation. The people buying your packaging weren't hired to think about this.

Multi-site data is a nightmare.

One site orders from two suppliers. Another uses a different tray. Head office runs a different cup programme from franchisees. Come submission time you're reconciling spreadsheets from multiple sources against a deadline. The work nobody planned for.

How Packlah works for operators

One position. Procurement as a lever. No year-end surprise.

Multi-site

One position across every site.

Add your locations, assign packaging SKUs to each, and Packlah rolls the whole estate into a single combined EPR and PPT view. Drill into any individual site, or look at the group position in one number. If a site adds a new packaging format mid-year, the group total updates immediately.

  • Group EPR liability and PPT exposure in one dashboard
  • Per-site drill-down so you see which location drives cost
  • Reporting-ready roll-up when submission time comes
Sites · cost ranking
14 sites
SiteTotal cost% of group
Canary Wharf£1,12312.2%
Shoreditch£8999.8%
Soho£7468.1%
Islington£6316.9%
Procurement

Procurement as a compliance lever.

Before you commit to a new cup format or switch suppliers, model the switch in Packlah. Enter the new material weight and recycled-content percentage, and see what it does to your PPT and EPR line - in pounds, not percentages. A switch to 30%+ recycled content on your main cup removes PPT on that line entirely. A real saving you can quantify before raising the PO.

  • Model recycled-content switches and see the £ saving instantly
  • Compare format options (plastic vs paper lid, virgin vs recycled)
  • Bring procurement and compliance into one conversation
Scenario · switch lid to 35% recycled
Modelled
OptionPPT/yrChange
Current (virgin lid)£2,780-
35% recycled lid£0-£2,780
Paper lid (no plastic)£0-£2,780
£2,780/yr saved by clearing the 30% recycled threshold on one line.
Visibility

Cost before the bill.

EPR and PPT are calculated on what you've placed on the market, not what you've reported. Packlah keeps a running cost estimate throughout the year - per site and across the group - so your finance team isn't guessing when they're asked to accrue the number. No surprises at year-end.

  • Real-time cost estimate as you add or change packaging
  • Per-site and group P&L line you can give finance today
  • Annual obligation modelled from your current run-rate
Run-rate forecast
On track
QuarterSpendEPR+PPT accrued
Q1£41k£2,295
Q2£44k£2,460
Q3 (est)£46k£2,570
Q4 (est)£42k£2,350
Thresholds

Threshold monitoring before you cross the line.

EPR producer obligations kick in at certain size thresholds. PPT has its own 10-tonne threshold. If you're growing - opening sites, doing more covers, adding seasonal menus - you want to know you're approaching a threshold before you cross it, not after your first submission.

  • Rolling tonnage tracked against PPT's 10-tonne threshold
  • EPR producer threshold monitoring as the group grows
  • Alert before you cross, so you have time to register
Rolling 12-month plastic tonnage
Updated daily
2.1t to threshold
MonthAddedRolling 12m
Q1 close1.8t6.4t
Q2 close2.0t7.1t
Q3 close2.2t7.9t
Heads up: two new sites will push you over the 10t PPT threshold around Q4. Register before then.
A worked example

What this looks like for a cafe group.

Operator · 14 sites · cups + lids

A 14-site cafe group gets through roughly 4.2 million paper cups and plastic lids a year - about 300,000 per site. At current published EPR rates that's around £6,400 in EPR fees on the cup-and-lid combination alone. The plastic lids, made from virgin polymer, add a PPT exposure of roughly £2,800 at £223 per tonne. Switching the lid spec to one with 30%+ recycled content removes the PPT line entirely - a saving of around £2,800 a year - and can be modelled in Packlah before the procurement team places the next order.

All figures use current published placeholder rates. Packlah flags these clearly and updates them the moment DEFRA and HMRC confirm final numbers.

Operator FAQ

Questions operators ask us.

Yes, that's the starting point. Add each location as a site, assign the packaging SKUs used there, and Packlah builds a group roll-up automatically. You can see the combined EPR and PPT position for the whole estate, and drill into any individual site. If head office and sites use different packaging programmes, you can model both.
Packlah lets you model that before you commit. For PPT, packaging with 30%+ recycled content by weight is exempt - so switching a virgin-plastic item above that threshold removes its PPT exposure entirely. For EPR, more recyclable formats attract lower modulated fees. Enter the new spec and the calculator shows you the before-and-after in pounds.
Probably yes, if you're putting your food or branding into that packaging and handing it to consumers. Under UK EPR rules, packer-fillers (businesses that fill packaging with their product) and brand owners (where your name or logo is on the pack) are both treated as producers. The obligation lands with you, not your packaging supplier.
You can enter packaging items manually, import from a spreadsheet, or use supplier-provided specs. For chains where different sites use different suppliers, you assign SKUs to sites after importing - you don't need to reconcile everything into one spreadsheet first. You just need the material weights and recycled-content percentages from each supplier's spec sheet.

Get your compliance number today.

Packlah is free to start - no card, no contract. Add your packaging, add your sites, and you'll have your combined EPR and PPT position in under an hour. For growing food-service operators, knowing the number before the deadline is the whole game.

Start freeEstimate my PPT
Next EPR reporting deadline: 1 October 2026