Leasing

Furniture takes an absolute beating in a hospitality environment, maybe more so than in any other industry.

It’s on your surfaces that you make your money - quite literally. So your furniture is arguably the most essential business kit you own.

Most hospitality operators are in the business because they know they can create spaces that people want to be in. That’s what you’re trading for your customers’ hard earned dollar: a beautiful environment in which to relax, socialise, meet new people. Crappy, flimsy, broken, dilapidated, worn and just generally sad looking furniture is the exact opposite of all that!

Yet how many bars and restaurants have you seen where the furniture is doing nothing for the vibes because it’s falling apart, peeling, rusting or damaged? In the vast majority of cases, this shouldn’t be cause for tutting: it’s super likely that the venue didn’t get like that because the owners don’t care or couldn’t be bothered!

First, we can all probably agree that imported factory-made ‘flat-pack’ furniture, like that sold by so many outlets, is in no way up to the hospitality job. It’s usually designed to live in homes, where the worst it’s going to encounter is a christmas party. If we’re talking about outdoor furniture that lives anywhere near the sea, the problem is magnified out of sight.

Second, let us introduce you to the concept of ‘planned obsolescence’: it’s not in a large suppliers’ business interest to manufacture robust, long-lasting furniture - they want you to replace it regularly. You’re a business person, so that should be perfectly understandable. What that means in practice is furniture often looks great, but (for example) is held together with cheap, crappy fixings. Looks solid for six months, then starts falling apart.

This means that hospitality owners have four choices:

1) They can buy from a major retail supplier, and replace their furniture once every year or two. That’s not viable if you like dividends!

2) They can contract a joinery outfit to build custom furniture. These are highly skilled craftsmen, and they charge accordingly! This adds a very hefty bump to the cost of your initial fit-out. Not to mention there’s unlikely to be much in the way of complimentary post-care, should anything get damaged. They’re not going to send someone running when a table-leg falls off. They’re all about beautiful(ly epensive) kitchens, and they do what they do very well. Catering to a business that can’t shut down for a week is not their focus, it’s ours!

3) They can shut down for a fortnight once a year to resurface and fix all their dilapidated furniture. Nope! Even if that was a possibility (maybe your off-season is VERY off!), have you tried to find a contractor who will do the job at a reasonable price, within a reasonable time-frame (ie. as quickly as humanly possible?) Builders for example won’t touch it, and don’t usual usually have the specialist knowledge to come up with a result that works long term.

4) They can resign themselves to grinding their teeth in frustration every time they have to walk past their rotten, peeling, faded, broken furniture!