Corporate gifts are tricky to get right at scale.
You need something that looks expensive without actually being expensive. Something that works for a VP and a new hire equally. Something with enough surface area to brand properly without looking like a billboard. And you need 50 of them, or 100, or 200 — all looking identical — by a date that’s usually closer than it should be.
That’s a specific problem. Not every supplier can handle it.
Why Cutting Boards Work
Most corporate gifts end up in a pile somewhere. Another branded tumbler. Another golf umbrella. Another thing that gets used once and shoved in a closet.
A hardwood cutting board goes home and stays in the kitchen. On the counter, not in a drawer. Gets used at dinner, pulled out when there’s company, sits there on a Tuesday morning when someone’s making breakfast. Your logo is just there. Every day. In their house.
That’s not nothing. Most marketing spend doesn’t get you daily visibility in someone’s home for two years.
Wood also reads as premium in a way that’s hard to fake with other materials. Pick up a solid walnut board and you know it cost something — even when it didn’t cost as much as it feels like it did. That gap between perceived value and actual cost is exactly what makes it work for gifting programs running on a real budget. You look like you spent more than you did. That matters when you’re gifting at volume.
Use Cases
Corporate gifting isn’t one thing. The situation changes the order.
Client gifts
Best use case for cutting boards. Client takes it home, logo stays in their kitchen. Ongoing visibility from a one-time cost. Maple for standard programs, walnut for top-tier clients.
Employee recognition
Tenure gifts, performance awards, new hire packages. Doesn’t feel like swag — feels like something. Add the employee’s name alongside the logo through engraving and it stops being generic entirely.
Conference and event gifts
Works for a room full of strangers. Useful, neutral, travels well in a tote bag. Maple in a standard size handles this better than anything else we carry.
Holiday programs
Highest volume, tightest deadlines. Order in September for a November/December program. Your engraver needs the lead time even if we don’t. Don’t leave this one to October.
Branding Your Boards
Logo engraving is how most corporate buyers brand their boards and it works well on Canadian hardwood.
The process is straightforward. You order the boards, they ship to you or your engraver, the logo gets lasered onto the surface, and the boards go out. We don’t engrave in-house but we work with laser engravers who handle corporate orders regularly. They know what file formats they need, how to center a logo, and how to run a batch of 200 boards consistently. We can make the introduction if you need it.
Maple gives the sharpest engraving contrast — logo comes out clean and dark against the light wood. Walnut gives a more subtle result, which some brands actually prefer. The logo reads but it doesn’t shout. Cherry sits between the two.
Logo placement matters more than most buyers expect. A logo centered low on the board leaves room for a tagline or a name above it. A logo in the corner reads differently than one centered on the face. Worth thinking about before you send the file to the engraver, not after.
File format — most engravers want a vector file. PDF or SVG. If you only have a PNG or JPEG, ask your engraver before you assume it’ll work. Check the laser engravers page for more on what engravers look for in a blank.
Which Wood
Maple is where most corporate orders land. Clean, neutral, professional. Works with any logo, any industry, any recipient. Hard to go wrong with it and pricing at volume is the most accessible of the three species.
Walnut is for when the gift needs to feel like a real investment. Dark, heavy, the kind of thing someone pulls out of a box and immediately knows cost something. Senior client gifts, executive programs, high-end holiday packages — walnut fits all of that. Nobody picks one up and wonders if it was expensive.
Cherry gets overlooked for corporate gifting. Warm reddish tone, ages well, less common than maple so it actually stands out when someone sees it. Not as expensive as walnut. If your brand has a warmer, more artisan feel to it, cherry is worth the conversation. It’s not the obvious choice which is sometimes exactly the point.
| Species | Colour | Logo contrast | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maple | Light, creamy white | Sharp and clean |
$ | Client gifts, conferences, employee programs |
| Cherry | Warm reddish tone | Warm, subtle |
$$ | Artisan brands, clients who want something different |
| Walnut | Rich dark brown | Subtle, premium |
$$$ | Executive gifts, luxury programs, top-tier clients |
See all three on the wood species page before you decide.
What Size Works Best
For corporate gifting the 10×14 or 12×18 inch range is where most orders land.
Big enough to feel like a real gift when someone picks it up. Practical enough to actually use in a kitchen. Not so large that shipping gets complicated or storing a pallet of them before distribution becomes a logistics problem.
Smaller boards in the 8×10 range work for conference swag where portability matters — easy to carry out of a venue, easy to pack in a gift bag. For client gifts and employee recognition where the impression matters more, go bigger.
If you’re not sure what size fits your program, order a sample. Hold it. That always settles the question faster than looking at dimensions on a screen.
Timelines
This is where corporate gifting programs go wrong most often.
The boards ship within a few business days of your order. That’s not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is your engraver. A laser engraver running a batch of 150 branded boards needs time — usually 1 to 2 weeks depending on their queue and the complexity of the logo. Add shipping back to you or directly to recipients. Then add your own internal distribution time.
| Program type | When to order boards | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Holiday program | September | Engravers get backed up in November. Don’t wait. |
| Conference or event | 6 weeks before | Boards ship fast. Engraver needs 1–2 weeks minimum. |
| Client gift run | 4 weeks before | No hard date but don’t cut it close. |
| Rush order | Call us first | We’ll check stock and tell you what’s actually possible. |
Questions Corporate Buyers Ask
Can I mix species in one order?
Yes. Each SKU needs to hit the 24-board minimum. Mix maple and walnut in the same shipment no problem.
Can I put the employee’s name on each board individually?
That’s an engraving question more than a board question. Most laser engravers can run variable text — same logo, different name on each board. Ask your engraver about their process for variable data runs before you commit.
Do you ship directly to recipients?
We ship to one address per order. If you need individual fulfillment to multiple addresses reach out and we’ll talk through what’s possible.
Can I see a sample before committing to a full order?
Yes. Reach out and we’ll arrange one. Worth doing before a large order if you haven’t ordered from us before.
What’s the minimum order?
24 boards per SKU. Most corporate orders are larger than that.
How does pricing work at volume?
Pricing improves as quantity goes up. If you’re moving serious volume reach out directly and we’ll talk numbers.
Do you ship across Canada?
Yes. Most orders arrive in 2 to 5 business days.
Getting Started
Tell us what the program is, your quantity, your wood preference, and your deadline. We’ll confirm stock and come back to you fast with pricing. No long back and forth.