Every buyer eventually asks the same question: how much toilet roll should we actually be ordering? Order too little and you get emergency top-up runs at retail prices. Order too much and you have pallets blocking a stockroom that could hold sellable goods.
Here is a straightforward way to work it out, whether you are running an office, a school, a cafe or a factory.
Start with one number: users per day
Everything flows from footfall. Not headcount, not square footage — the number of people who actually use your washrooms in a day.
For an office, that is roughly your headcount adjusted for hybrid working. If half the team is in on any given day, plan around half. For a cafe or shop, it is a percentage of customers plus staff. For a school, it is pupils plus staff.
The working assumptions
Industry planning generally works on these rules of thumb:
- A person uses the washroom roughly 2 to 3 times per working day on site.
- Each visit consumes somewhere around 1.5 to 2 metres of tissue.
- That comes out at roughly 4 to 5 metres per person per day.
These are planning figures, not laws of physics. Public-facing washrooms, sites with long shifts and buildings with high visitor traffic all run higher. Use them as a starting point, then correct against what your site actually gets through.
Do the maths
The calculation is:
Users per day × 4.5 metres × working days = total metres needed
Then divide by the metreage of the roll format you use to get roll count.
Worked example: a 60-person office
- 40 people on site on an average day
- 40 × 4.5m = 180 metres per day
- × 22 working days = 3,960 metres per month
On 200m mini jumbo rolls, that is about 20 rolls a month, or roughly two cases of 12. Order a quarter at a time and you are looking at five to six cases, comfortably one pallet layer, with enough buffer that nobody is doing an emergency shop run.
Worked example: a busy cafe
- 250 customers a day, of whom perhaps 30 percent use the washroom, plus 8 staff
- Around 83 users a day × 4.5m = 374 metres per day
- Open 7 days: roughly 11,200 metres per month
On 300m jumbo rolls that is about 37 rolls a month, comfortably justifying a jumbo dispenser and a monthly pallet-based ordering rhythm rather than weekly cash-and-carry trips.
Add a buffer, but the right kind
A sensible buffer is two to four weeks of usage. Less than that and you are exposed to a single delayed delivery. More than that and you are financing stock that does nothing but take up space.
Two things justify a bigger buffer: seasonal peaks (hospitality in summer, retail in December) and long lead times from your supplier. If your supplier holds UK stock and delivers in days rather than weeks, you can safely run leaner.
Where the money actually leaks
Most sites overspend on washroom consumables in three places, and none of them are the unit price:
- Emergency top-ups. Buying 9 packs from the supermarket at retail when you run out. This is by far the most expensive tissue you will ever buy.
- Wrong format. Using standard household rolls in a commercial washroom means constant refilling, and staff time costs more than paper.
- Repeat delivery charges. Four small orders a month instead of one consolidated pallet order, each carrying its own carriage cost.
Fixing the format and consolidating the ordering rhythm usually saves more than any amount of haggling over price per roll.
A quick reference table
| Site type | Users/day | Approx. monthly metres | Suggested format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small office | 10 to 25 | 1,000 to 2,500 | Mini jumbo 150m |
| Medium office | 25 to 75 | 2,500 to 7,500 | Mini jumbo 200m |
| Cafe or restaurant | 50 to 150 | 7,000 to 20,000 | Jumbo 300m |
| School or factory | 150 to 500+ | 20,000+ | Jumbo 400m |
Getting the ordering right
Once you know your monthly metreage, the rest is easy. Pick the format that suits your traffic, confirm your dispenser core size, and set an order rhythm that matches your buffer rather than reacting to an empty cupboard.
Midland Tissue Company stocks mini jumbo rolls and jumbo toilet rolls in the UK, in both 60mm and 76mm cores. Request a wholesale quote with your site details and we will work the volumes out with you.
Frequently asked questions
How much toilet roll does one person use per day at work?
Roughly 4 to 5 metres per person per working day is a reasonable planning figure, based on 2 to 3 washroom visits. Public-facing sites tend to run higher.
How long does a 200m mini jumbo roll last?
At around 4.5 metres per person per day, one 200m roll covers roughly 44 person-days. In a 20-person office that is a little over two days per roll across the site.
Should I buy toilet roll monthly or quarterly?
Monthly ordering with a two to four week buffer suits most sites. Quarterly makes sense if you have the storage and want to cut delivery costs further.
Is it cheaper to buy toilet roll by the pallet?
Almost always. The unit price drops and, more importantly, you stop paying repeat carriage charges and emergency retail top-ups.