Pie Boxes.

A fruit pie puts 2 to 3 pounds on one panel, and it is usually boxed warm. If the base board is too light, it hinges in the middle when the box is lifted and the crust edge cracks.

We treat 24pt coated board as the working minimum for standard pies. Deep-dish and commercial weights move up to E-flute corrugated, and a corrugated base pad can be added to spread the load across the whole floor.

Any box that will hold a warm pie should have vents. Steam that can't escape condenses on the underside of the lid and drips back, and the bottom crust goes soft within the hour.

We die-cut the vents into the lid or side walls with the same cutting die, so they're made in the same pass as the box itself. For chilled cream pies the concern shifts to condensation, and a coated interior matters more than the vent pattern.

Close enough that the pie can't slide more than a finger's width in any direction. A pie that shifts in transit knocks its crimped edge against the wall and arrives broken on one side.

We size the footprint from the outside diameter of your tin or dish, then set the height. Standard pies sit in 2.5 to 3 inches of depth, and meringue or tall crumb toppings need 4 inches or more so the lid never touches them.

A window lid is the most requested option, because a lattice top does the selling on its own. Around it, most bakeries run their name in one or two colours, or a one-colour mark on kraft for a farm-stand feel.

For the holiday rush some customers switch to seasonal prints on the same structure. CMYK brand print and embossing on the lid are both available if the box is heading onto a store shelf.

A 9-inch pie usually goes into a 9 × 9 × 2.5 in or 10 × 10 × 3 in box, depending on the rim of the dish. Measure across the widest point of the tin, including the lip, rather than the pie itself.

Deep-dish pies need about 4 inches of height. If you bake in more than one tin size, send us each diameter and we'll check whether one footprint can cover two of them without letting the smaller one slide.

Our minimum for printed pie boxes is 500. Most bakeries order that first run in one size and one design, then add a second size once they know which pies sell best.

Runs can go up to 100,000 boxes for multi-store programs. Our team draws the dieline and sets up the artwork without charge, whatever the quantity.

Standard production takes 7 to 10 business days after proof approval, but we'd still place a holiday order at least a month out. Transit time across the USA sits on top of that, and November is when every other bakery is ordering too.

A rush slot can bring production down to 5 to 7 business days. If the box is new to you, get a sample first, which takes 5 to 7 business days and is credited against the production order.

Yes, if you order it with a coated interior that tolerates condensation. A cream pie carried from the cooler into a warm shop sweats, and uncoated board picks up that moisture and loses its stiffness.

A food-safe PE coating keeps the floor rigid through that change, and a greaseproof lining handles butter crusts. You can leave the vents off a cold-pie box, since there's no steam to release.