Pricing guide
How to price corporate drop-off catering
Corporate drop-off is a volume business: thinner margins than events, but the same office reorders every week if the first lunch lands right. The trick is pricing fast and consistently, not cheaply. Here is what a realistic 2026 per-person number looks like, and where drop-off caterers quietly give away the margin.
The worked number
Per person
$23.50 – $39.00
Total for 25 guests
$587.50 – $975.00
Delivered drop-off, standard protein (a sandwich-and-hot-tray spread), three sides, national cost average — no on-site staff.
What is in the per-person number
The food is the smallest part. Drop-off carries packaging, serviceware, labels, the shopping and prep time, and the drive — costs a plated event hides inside its service fee but a $14 boxed lunch has to absorb line by line. Cost the whole delivered order per person, not just the sandwich.
Standard proteins (deli meats, roasted chicken, a pasta tray) sit at the middle tier. Trade up to steak or shrimp and you leave the drop-off price band; most corporate lunches live in the budget-to-standard range because the buyer is spending a department budget, not their own money.
Minimums and the drive
A drop-off order below your minimum loses money before you cook: the drive and the packaging cost the same whether it feeds 8 or 80. Set an order minimum, and price delivery as its own line rather than burying it — clients accept a stated delivery fee far more readily than a mysteriously high per-head number.
The order that comes back
One-off lunches barely pay; the standing account is the whole game. When a past client goes quiet, a rebooking reminder resurfaces them so you can win the next order before they default to whoever is easiest. Retention, not new logos, is where drop-off caterers actually make rent.
Get exact costs from YOUR recipes
These are market ranges. CaterKit photographs your menu, costs every recipe from your ingredients, and prices the quote at your margin — free to start.
Re-run this office lunch with your own headcount and region.