01Why guessing goes wrong
Most restaurants buy their first stock of linen by feel. The owner looks at the number of tables, imagines a busy night, adds a bit, and places an order. For a while it works. Then the restaurant gets busier, adds a second sitting, starts opening on Sundays or takes on a private dining room, and suddenly the napkins run out at nine o'clock on a Friday. Or the opposite happens: a cupboard full of tablecloths that never get used, slowly yellowing on a shelf, while the money spent on them could have gone elsewhere.
The underlying problem is that linen stock depends on three things that change over time: how many covers you serve, how much linen each cover uses, and how long linen is away at the laundry. When any of them changes, the right stock level changes too. A guess made when you opened will not stay right for long.
This guide gives a simple method that any restaurant, pub or café can use with a pen and paper or a spreadsheet. It works for napkins, tablecloths, top cloths, aprons, chef whites, side towels and glass cloths. It takes about an hour to do the first time and a few minutes to update.
What you need before you start
- Your covers for a typical week, day by day, and for your busiest normal day.
- How many tables you lay, and with which size of cloth.
- How often guests' napkins and tables' cloths are changed.
- Your laundry collection and return days.
- How many staff wear aprons and whites, and how often they change.
02Step one: count your daily use
The starting point is how many of each item you use on your busiest normal day. Not the busiest day of the year, such as New Year's Eve, but a typical busy Saturday.
| Item | How to estimate daily use |
|---|---|
| Napkins | Covers × napkins per cover |
| Tablecloths | Tables with cloths × turns per table |
| Top cloths | Tables using them × changes per day |
| Aprons | Staff wearing aprons × changes per shift |
| Chef jackets | Cooks × changes per day |
| Side towels | Cooks × towels per shift |
| Glass cloths | Bar and floor staff × cloths per shift |
Napkins
At minimum, one napkin per cover. In practice, guests drop napkins, spill on them and ask for fresh ones, so most restaurants use more than one per cover. A good way to find your real figure is to count napkins sent to the laundry for a week and divide by covers. Many restaurants find the figure is somewhere between one and two napkins per cover, depending on style and service.
Tablecloths
Count the number of tables laid with cloths for each sitting, multiplied by the number of sittings, plus changes for spills. If a table is turned three times in an evening and the cloth is changed each time, that is three cloths for that table.
Top cloths and runners
If you use top cloths over base cloths, count them separately. Top cloths are usually changed more often than base cloths.
Kitchen and staff linen
Count aprons, chef jackets, trousers, side towels and glass cloths used on a busy day. Side towels and aprons usually come out much higher than people expect.
03Step two: work out the days away
Next, work out how many days' worth of linen is away from the restaurant at any one time. This depends on your laundry schedule.
| Schedule | Typical days away |
|---|---|
| Daily collection, next-day return | About 2 days |
| Collections three times a week | About 3 days |
| Collections twice a week | About 4 days |
| Weekly collection | About 7 to 8 days |
Draw the cycle
Write down when used linen is collected and when clean linen comes back. If linen collected on Monday returns on Wednesday, and linen collected on Thursday returns on Saturday, then at any point roughly two to three days' worth of used linen is either waiting for collection or at the laundry.
The longest gap
Look for the longest gap between linen being used and coming back clean. Weekends and bank holidays often stretch the gap. That longest gap is what your stock must cover.
Example
These are rough figures; your actual collection and return days decide the real number.
04Step three: add the buffer
Stock should cover more than just the days away. You also need linen on the tables and in the service stations right now, and a buffer for spills, stains, late deliveries and unexpectedly busy nights.
In use
At any moment during service, some linen is on the tables and some is at the service stations. Count one day's use as "in use and ready".
Buffer
Add a buffer, often around 20 to 30 per cent of daily use, for spills, stains taken out of service, items held back at the laundry and the occasional unexpectedly busy night. Busier, more unpredictable restaurants need a larger buffer.
05Step four: put it together
The total stock for each item is daily use multiplied by the days away, plus one day in use, plus a buffer.
| Item | Daily use | Days away + 1 | Buffer | Stock to own |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Napkins (1.5 per cover) | 225 | 4 | 60 | 960 |
| Tablecloths | 70 | 4 | 20 | 300 |
| Aprons | 30 | 4 | 10 | 130 |
| Chef jackets | 12 | 4 | 4 | 52 |
| Side towels | 60 | 4 | 15 | 255 |
| Glass cloths | 30 | 4 | 10 | 130 |
The formula
Stock = daily use × (days away + 1) + buffer
A worked example
The figures below are illustrative, for a restaurant serving about 150 covers on a busy Saturday, with collections three times a week.
Check against reality
Compare the result with what you actually own. If you own much less, you have probably been running short or rushing linen back into use. If you own much more, you may be able to hold off on replacements for a while.
06Napkins in more detail
Napkins are the largest number of items most restaurants own, and the easiest to run short of.
Napkins per cover
Fine dining restaurants often replace napkins when guests leave the table, and may offer a fresh napkin between courses, pushing use towards two or more per cover. Casual restaurants may use close to one per cover. Pubs serving food often fall somewhere between. Measure your own figure rather than relying on someone else's.
Sizes
If you use more than one napkin size, such as dinner napkins and smaller cocktail napkins, calculate each separately.
Losses
Napkins are lost more than any other table linen: thrown away with food, taken home in pockets, used by staff for cleaning. Add a little extra buffer for losses, and count them.
07Tablecloths in more detail
Tablecloths are fewer in number but more expensive per item, and running short of the right size is very visible.
Size by size
Calculate stock separately for each size and shape: small squares, large squares, rectangles, rounds, long banquet cloths. Running out of one size while another sits unused is common.
Turns
The number of times a table turns in an evening matters more than the number of tables. A restaurant with twenty tables turning three times needs far more cloths than one with forty tables turning once.
Changes for spills
Add an allowance for mid-service changes. A restaurant that changes a cloth after every noticeable spill will use more than one that covers small marks with a top cloth.
08Kitchen linen in more detail
Kitchen linen is often forgotten when restaurants calculate stock, and it is the area most likely to run short.
Side towels
Cooks get through side towels quickly, because a damp or greasy towel is unsafe for handling hot pans. Five or more per cook per shift is common in busy kitchens. Measure your own use for a week.
Aprons
Aprons are changed after raw food work and whenever they are wet or heavily soiled. Front-of-house aprons may be changed less often. Count both.
Chef whites
Jackets are usually changed every shift, and sometimes between services. A separate guide covers chef whites in more detail.
Glass cloths
Bar and floor staff use glass cloths for polishing. They must be clean and dry to avoid streaks, so they are changed often.
09Adjusting for seasons and events
Restaurant covers change through the year. Summer terraces, the Christmas party season and major events can all push covers well above normal.
Plan ahead for peaks
Before a busy season, recalculate stock using expected peak covers. Order extra stock early, because suppliers get busy too. Alternatively, agree with your laundry to increase collection frequency during peaks, which reduces days away and therefore stock needed.
Quiet months
In quiet months, you may have more linen than needed. Use the time to retire worn items, rotate stock and do a full count.
Events and private dining
Private events may need different linen: long cloths, coloured runners, specific napkins. Calculate event linen separately and keep it apart from everyday stock.
10How the laundry schedule changes everything
The laundry schedule is the biggest lever on how much linen you need. The same restaurant can need much more or much less stock depending on how often linen is collected.
More frequent collections
More frequent collections mean fewer days away and less stock tied up. They can also mean more delivery charges or minimum orders, so compare the cost of extra collections with the cost of extra stock.
Reliable returns
A laundry that returns linen reliably on the agreed day lets you run a lower buffer. An unreliable one forces you to carry more stock as insurance.
Changing laundry
If you change laundry, recalculate stock using the new schedule before you switch.
11Space for your stock
Calculating the right stock is only useful if you have space to keep it. London restaurants are often short of storage.
- Measure your linen storage and estimate how many folded items fit.
- If space is short, more frequent collections reduce the clean stock you need to hold.
- Keep only working stock on site; seasonal or event linen can be stored elsewhere.
- Keep linen storage dry and away from the kitchen.
12Allowing for losses and write-offs
Every restaurant loses linen: napkins in bins, stained cloths, burnt aprons, side towels that vanish. Stock calculations need to allow for it, or stock will quietly fall below what you need.
Measure losses
Count linen out to the laundry and back. Record items retired as stained or damaged. Over a few months, you will know how many of each item you lose per month.
Reorder regularly
Rather than waiting until you run short, reorder enough each month or quarter to replace average losses. This keeps stock steady.
13Stock for a new restaurant
A new restaurant has no history to measure, so the first stock has to be estimated.
- Estimate covers for the first months, including opening events.
- Use typical figures for napkins per cover and cloth turns as a starting point.
- Agree the laundry schedule before opening.
- Buy a little more than the calculation suggests, to allow for unknowns.
- Measure real use from the first week and adjust within the first two months.
14How the answer changes by type of place
The method is the same everywhere, but the inputs vary a great deal between different kinds of restaurant.
Fine dining
Fine dining restaurants usually use the most linen per cover: full tablecloths, sometimes with underlays and top cloths, napkins replaced whenever a guest leaves the table, and frequent mid-service changes. Covers are fewer, but linen per cover is high. They also need a larger buffer, because running short is unacceptable in that setting.
Bistros and neighbourhood restaurants
Bistros often use cloths at dinner and bare tables or placemats at lunch, with cloth napkins throughout. Linen per cover is moderate. Turns per table can be high on busy nights, so tablecloth stock needs careful thought.
Pubs and gastropubs
Many pubs use bare tables with cloth or paper napkins, and reserve cloths for a dining room or Sunday lunch. Their biggest linen use is often in the kitchen and behind the bar: aprons, side towels and glass cloths. Sunday lunch can be the single busiest day for napkins and cloths.
Cafés and brunch places
Cafés rarely use tablecloths, but aprons, tea towels and cleaning cloths add up quickly. Napkins may be paper or cloth. Brunch service brings high covers in a short window, which can strain napkin stock.
Event venues
Venues that host weddings and parties need large quantities of specific linen for a few days a week, and little in between. Their calculation is event by event rather than daily.
15Keeping a simple weekly log
The most reliable way to know your daily use is to measure it. A simple weekly log, kept for two or three weeks, gives figures far better than any rule of thumb.
| Day | Covers | Napkins sent | Cloths sent | Aprons sent | Side towels sent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | |||||
| Tuesday | |||||
| Wednesday | |||||
| Thursday | |||||
| Friday | |||||
| Saturday | |||||
| Sunday |
How to fill it in
Each night, count the used linen by item before it is bagged, and write it down with the covers for that day. At the end of the week, divide napkins by covers to get napkins per cover, and note the busiest day's figures for each item. Two or three weeks give a reliable picture.
Using laundry records
If your laundry provides counts for each collection, you can use those instead, as long as you know which days each collection covers.
16Matching cloths to your table plan
Many restaurants have a mix of table sizes, and many rearrange tables for larger groups. Cloth stock needs to match how tables are actually used, not just how many there are.
Map your tables
Draw or list every table with its size and shape, and the cloth size it takes. Note which tables are pushed together for larger groups, and what cloth they need when joined. Long tables made of several small ones may need banquet cloths or several overlapping cloths.
Reduce the number of sizes
If possible, choose cloth sizes that fit more than one table. Fewer sizes mean simpler stock, less chance of running out of one size, and easier storage.
17If you run short tonight
Despite the best calculations, there will be nights when linen runs short. Having a plan stops panic.
- Check every storage area, service station and the event stock for clean linen.
- Use top cloths or runners on bare tables to stretch cloth stock.
- Prioritise cloths for tables with bookings; seat walk-ins at bare tables if you have them.
- Ask the laundry whether an urgent delivery is possible.
- Afterwards, record what ran short and recalculate.
Avoid the worst options
Do not use napkins from the used bag, turn stained cloths over, or use damp linen straight from an on-site dryer. All of these show, and some are hygiene risks.
18A second example: a busy pub kitchen
The earlier example was a restaurant. This one is an illustrative pub with a dining room, to show how different the answer can look.
The pub serves about 80 covers on a typical Saturday and around 160 at Sunday lunch, its busiest normal day. Tables in the bar are bare; the dining room's twelve tables are laid with cloths for Sunday lunch only. Napkins are cloth throughout, and the pub's own count shows about 1.2 napkins per cover. The kitchen has four cooks on Sunday, each using about six side towels and two aprons a shift. Linen is collected on Monday and Thursday and returned two days later.
Sunday is the day to plan for. Napkins: 160 covers × 1.2 is about 190 a day. Tablecloths: twelve tables turning twice is 24, plus a few spare for spills, say 28. Side towels: 24. Aprons: 8 for the kitchen plus a few for front of house.
The longest gap is from Sunday's use to Wednesday's return of Monday's collection, so Sunday's linen is away for about three days. Adding one day in use gives a multiplier of four. Napkins come to about 760 plus a buffer, tablecloths to about 110 plus a buffer, and side towels to about 100 plus a buffer.
What stands out is that the pub's biggest numbers are napkins and side towels, not tablecloths, and that the whole calculation is driven by one day, Sunday. If the pub added a Saturday evening dining room with cloths, the tablecloth figure would jump. If the laundry added a Sunday evening collection, every figure would fall.
19Bank holidays and long weekends
Bank holidays deserve a special mention because they catch so many restaurants out. A long weekend is often busy, and at the same time the laundry may not collect or deliver on the holiday itself. Linen used on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday may not leave the building until Tuesday and may not return until Thursday.
Before each bank holiday, check the laundry's schedule for that week, recalculate days away and make sure stock covers the longer gap. Many restaurants ask for an extra collection before the weekend or hold a seasonal buffer for exactly these weeks. Christmas and New Year, with several holidays close together and many parties, need the most planning of all.
20When the restaurant grows
Growth is good news, but it is the most common moment for linen to run short. Covers rise gradually, nobody recalculates, and one Friday the napkins simply run out.
Triggers for a recalculation
- Covers on your busiest day rise noticeably over a few weeks.
- You add a sitting, extend opening hours or open on a new day.
- You open a private dining room, terrace or bar area.
- You change the menu style, such as adding tasting menus with more courses.
- You change from paper to cloth napkins, or from bare tables to cloths.
Growing step by step
When covers grow, the calculation tells you exactly which items need topping up. Order those first. Napkins and side towels usually need to grow fastest, because they scale directly with covers and cooks.
Shrinking too
If covers fall, perhaps after a change of concept or a quieter season, the calculation tells you which items you can stop reordering for a while. Let stock fall naturally through losses and retirements rather than buying replacements.
How ArkLaundry helps
We plan collections around your services so linen arrives before it runs out. Mixed commercial linen can also go by weight at £3.20 a kilo, excluding VAT.
