No one knows exactly how many office furniture suppliers there are in the UK and the true list can potentially be doubled by the numerous office supplies companies that also advertise a range of “normally budget” office furniture via a catalogue. There are various lists in circulation from organisations like the British Furniture Manufactures Association (www.bfm.org.uk) but even they will not have a comprehensive list.
Why is this the case? One reason is that many office furniture suppliers experienced a very tough time during the recession and, unfortunately, some of these went out of business. Secondly, any list of furniture companies can be confused by the presence of companies that have an interest in the residential market, furniture manufacturers, design and build companies, and more specialist flooring, office partionning and mechanical engineering companies.
Hence, for the typical business user wishing to acquire office furniture, the process can be anything but straightforward.
At the beginning of 2014, the WestWon office furniture leasing division undertook extensive research into suppliers of office furniture in the UK.
As a result we established that there are 1,660 companies selling furniture in the UK. 20% of these – 345 office furniture suppliers – are based in London, while just under 4% are based in Buckinghamshire. High Wycombe – a town that is renowned for its furniture production – has 23 furniture companies, which is more than most counties.
Counties such as Bedfordshire, West Midlands, Derbyshire, Essex and Nottinghamshire are all home to in the region of 30 office furniture suppliers. The furniture supplier ‘capital’ of the north is Lanarkshire, with the Scottish county boasting more than 46 suppliers, putting it on a par with Kent with 45. Counties with most manufacturers are Cambridgeshire with 57, Staffordshire with 60 and topping the furniture supplier research, Hampshire with 73.
For more information about UK office furniture suppliers contact the WestWon Office Furniture team on Tel: 01494 611 456