How do you select a corporate gifting company for Diwali?
Choose the vendor that can prove festive-season capacity, not the one with the lowest unit price. Before you award a Diwali order, get written evidence of a previous Diwali program at your volume, committed dispatch dates, a substitution plan for bought-in items and, if the kit contains food, a valid FSSAI licence.
Capacity beats price at peak: ask how much capacity is still free in your delivery window.
Put dates in writing: artwork freeze, production complete, and dispatch for each city tier.
Check food compliance: the vendor's licence tier and the licence numbers on the label (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India [FSSAI], 2025, 2026a).
The full Diwali planning timeline is covered in our Diwali planning guide and is not repeated here.
What should you ask a Diwali gifting vendor before you award the order?
Ask seven questions in writing and keep the answers, because each one tests festive capacity rather than general capability.
1. Can you show a previous Diwali program at our volume?
Ask for kit count, delivery locations and how many kits arrived before the festival.
2. Will you commit the key dates in the purchase order?
Artwork freeze, production complete and dispatch should be commitments, not estimates.
3. How much of your festive capacity is already booked?
Several Diwali programs in one fortnight can push yours down the queue.
4. Which items are bought in, and what is the approved substitute for each?
Agree substitutes in writing before production starts.
5. Which FSSAI licence do you hold?
Needed whenever the kit contains food.
6. What does each advance payment buy, and who owns surplus or rejected stock?
Tie payments to milestones and put stock ownership in the order.
7. When does the address list freeze, and how are failed deliveries handled?
Does a corporate gifting company need an FSSAI licence for Diwali hampers?
Yes, if the vendor packs, repacks or labels food. FSSAI lists repackers and relabellers as manufacturers, not traders, and turnover sets the licence tier (FSSAI, 2026b).
Which FSSAI licence tier should a hamper vendor hold?
An FSSAI order effective 1 April 2026 sets Registration for "Turnover up to Rs. 1.5 crore", a State Licence for "Turnover above Rs. 1.5 crore and up to Rs. 50 crore" and a Central Licence above Rs. 50 crore (FSSAI, 2026a). E-commerce food businesses, including redemption stores selling food, need a Central Licence with "no restriction on turnover threshold" (FSSAI, 2026b).
What should you collect from a hamper vendor?
The licence certificate, verified on FSSAI's FoSCoS portal.
Label artwork. Regulation 5(7)(b) requires "the FSSAI logo and license number of the brand owner" on the label, plus the packer's or manufacturer's number "if different from the brand owner" (FSSAI, 2025).
Shelf life checked against dispatch date.
The regulations do not define "brand owner", so confirm in writing which entity the label names.
When should you select a Diwali vendor, and what if you are late?
Select the vendor by early-to-mid September and lock quantities and branding by mid-October, for a Diwali that falls on 8 November 2026, as set out in our Diwali planning guide. Kits should land before employees leave for the festival, so aim for the week before.
If you are choosing in late October, the ideal timeline has gone. Narrow the brief to the checks that protect delivery:
Choose in-stock items over custom production.
Get the dispatch date for each city tier in writing before you pay.
Leave food out unless the vendor's FSSAI licence checks out today.
Which Diwali gifting vendors should you walk away from?
Walk away when the warning signs stack up before you award the order. Demand is the uncertainty supplier-selection research models most often: 32% of 43 studies published from 2021 to 2023 treated it as a source of risk (Nguyen et al., 2024), and Diwali concentrates it into weeks. Three or more of these signs usually means the deadline is at risk:
No committed dates in the quotation.
An advance payment tied to a calendar date rather than a milestone.
No Diwali reference at your volume, only client logos.
No FSSAI certificate when the kit contains food.
One delivery date quoted for a multi-city dispatch.
Most programs are safest with one lead partner owning kit and dispatch, plus a pre-approved alternate for the item most likely to slip.
What does a credible answer on festive capacity look like?
A credible answer gives dates and numbers for the festive quarter, not just annual totals. Annual figures are where the follow-up starts: how much volume ran in the festive season, and how much capacity is still free?
CompanyStore reports 600,000+ orders executed last year, 250+ enterprise and GCC clients and 20+ years of experience, and states that 73% of Fortune 500 companies already work with it (CompanyStore, n.d.-b). Our festive gifting program runs curated hampers and branded gifts across India. Ask us, and every vendor on your list, the same seven questions.
FAQ
How far before Diwali should we choose a corporate gifting vendor? By early-to-mid September, with quantities and branding locked by mid-October, for a Diwali on 8 November 2026. Production, quality checks and multi-city dispatch all depend on that award date, so a later decision removes the slack.
Does a corporate gifting company need an FSSAI licence to supply Diwali hampers? Yes, if it packs, repacks or labels food. From 1 April 2026, Registration covers turnover up to Rs. 1.5 crore, a State Licence covers Rs. 1.5 crore to Rs. 50 crore, and a Central Licence covers anything above (FSSAI, 2026a). E-commerce food businesses need a Central Licence at any turnover (FSSAI, 2026b).
Whose FSSAI licence number must appear on a branded Diwali hamper? The brand owner's, plus the manufacturer's, marketer's or packer's if different (FSSAI, 2025, Reg. 5(7)(b)). The regulations do not define "brand owner", so ask the vendor which entity the label will name and see the artwork before printing.
Do larger Diwali orders change what we should prioritise? Yes. In a study of an online marketplace for production capacity, Hu, Kong and Jia found that "as the order size increases, price and quality attributes become more important" (Hu et al., 2025). For a large program, check quality-control capability as closely as turnaround promises.
Is a large advance payment acceptable for a Diwali order? Only when each tranche is tied to a milestone you can verify, such as artwork approval, production completion or dispatch. An advance tied to calendar dates leaves you no leverage if the program slips.
Should we award one vendor or several for a Diwali program? One lead partner with a pre-approved alternate suits most programs. Several specialist vendors only make sense if your team can run a separate cutoff and quality check for each.
Sources
CompanyStore. (n.d.-a). About us. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://www.companystore.io/about-us
CompanyStore. (n.d.-b). CompanyStore [Home page]. Retrieved October 29, 2026, from https://www.companystore.io/
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. (2025). Compendium of Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020 (Version VIII, 9 September 2025). https://fssai.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/Comp_Labelling%20Display_Version%20VIII_09_09_2025.pdf
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. (2026a). Order dated 13th March 2026: Revised turnover threshold (F. No. RCD-01002/1/2021-Regulatory-FSSAI-Part(1), Comp. No. 4550). https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/advisories/2026/03/69b4054bb6cd6Order%20dated%2013thMarch2026_Revised%20Turnover%20threshold.pdf
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. (2026b). Kind of business: Criteria, licence/registration, fee per annum (Updated 1 April 2026). Food Safety Compliance System. https://foscos.fssai.gov.in/assets/docs/Revised_2ndApril2026KindofBusinessEligibility.pdf
Hu, K., Kong, L., & Jia, Z. (2025). Supplier selection criteria under heterogeneous sourcing needs: Evidence from an online marketplace for selling production capacity. Production and Operations Management, 34(2), 168–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/10591478241279384
Nguyen, T., Amin, S. H., & Shah, B. (2024). A perspective on supplier selection and order allocation: Literature review. Administrative Sciences, 14(9), 206. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14090206
Author experience. Written by the CompanyStore editorial team. CompanyStore has run enterprise merchandise programs for more than 20 years, serving over 250 enterprise and GCC clients from a 25,000 sq ft facility in India (CompanyStore, n.d.-a).
Internal cross-references. Diwali planning guide · Diwali gifting for a distributed workforce · Festive gifting program
Note. FSSAI licensing and labelling rules are summarised as published on FSSAI's website on 29 October 2026 and are not legal or compliance advice. Verify a vendor's licence on FSSAI's FoSCoS portal and confirm your own obligations with a qualified adviser. CompanyStore's order and client figures are company-wide totals published on its website, not festive-season figures.