Guide · scaling
A hand-poured silicone tray is a good place to start and, for many brands, a good place to stay. Knowing when to graduate is a real decision.
The guide
Some brands should stay hand-poured forever. Small artisan producers, chef-led restaurants, seasonal producers — production tooling is expensive, slower to iterate on, and locks in a design. For a brand that changes its lineup often, bench work is the right answer.
The right time to graduate is when the labour cost of bench work exceeds the amortised cost of a production tool over a realistic run. If you're selling forty a week, a production tool doesn't pay back. If you're selling four hundred a week and hiring a second bench, it does.
A bench-poured shape often needs small adjustments to run in a compression or injection tool. Draft angles, corner radii, wall thickness — small stuff, but real. We handle that translation.
A production tool warrants a fuller paperwork bundle — material declaration, cavity check record, drawing package, cleandown recommendation. If your customer or your retailer is asking for a supplier approval visit, this is the point at which you stop apologising for the paperwork.
A single production tool is a single point of failure on your line. If a line stoppage is unaffordable, plan a second tool. We can hold it in reserve on our floor or deliver it to your site.
Even after you've scaled a signature product, keep a bench mould in the studio. It's where every future product will start.
Need advice on your specific job?
You're not obliged to order anything. If we don't think we're the right supplier for your job, we'll say so.
Real people, a real workshop
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Culinary, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare