Sitting Comfortably
Fashion is low on the list of buyers of banqueting and conference furniture. Most hotels and conference venues want a tough frame, practical, hard wearing fabric and versatile tables, only some of the more expensive venues like to match furnishings to their decor. But that purely practical approach to banqueting furniture is now being tempered with an eye to design.
One growing trend is towards mix and match seating whereby different coloured seat pads can be velcroed into position. One supplier of these is Cheltenham based, Lamata Contract Furniture which supplies the Gala chair manufactured in low maintenance gold resin. It costs £29 and stacks in a spiral. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
"People tend to go for a steel frame banqueting chair upholstered in plain dralon, often black," says sales manager Debbie Savage. "We can match fabrics, but this is unusual as most hotel and conference centres have floral curtains and a patterned carpet and want plain chairs. However, people are becoming adventurous and the more expensive hotels are now spending greater amounts on furniture as a way of beating the competition."
The table shape debate continues unresolved. While round tables are popular for banqueting because of the informality of the seating, square and rectangular types are more versatile and can be placed together to make large tables. The round tables come in 5ft seating 8-10 guests and 6ft seating 10-12. Any larger and they would be too heavy (around 25-30 kg) to handle and manoeuvre through doors - even when being rolled.
All tables can be folded and stacked and Lamata supply a trolley for £150 for storing them where space is restricted. Tables come in chipboard to be covered with cloths, melamine for wiping or flock baize to deaden the noise. Prices range from £60-£70.
"The baize covered tables are increasingly popular as they allow staff to serve quietly and it also stops things moving about," says Savage. Lamata also supplies furniture to companies who hire it out. The most popular chair in this market is the gold painted wood, velvet padded, regency style Cheltenham Chair, which despite the fragile appearance of the chair, it is stackable and retails at £37.50.
For the hire market, popular for outside event banqueting, Lamata's most popular table is a robust plywood table with tubular folding legs. "People don't usually respect furniture when it's hired, but there's nothing to break on this. We started selling these 12 years ago and some of our clients still have them," says Savage. The tables retail at around £44.
The Stacking Chair Company, based in Kettering, sells an average of more than 15,000 chairs a year costing from £19 to £42. Chairs range from a basic wooden ladderback to aluminium with padded seats and backs to the wood and metal tub chair with curved back and arms. The most popular for conferences and banqueting are the steel framed padded Royal or Coronet in dralon priced around £22. Chairs come upholstered in a variety of colours and two widths, 14-16″ and 16-18.
"It's important the hotel knows how many people it wants to seat in the conference or banqueting rooms as this affects the width," says Natasha Millard, sales manager. "Most Chinese restaurants order the narrower size in order to squeeze more people into a small space."
The company also supplies square, round or rectangular tables from £32 for a melamine woodgrain and £57 for decamel laminate. Tables also come with folding legs to be conveniently stacked when space is restricted.
"Once again, we need the client to decide on how many people they want to sit around a table. In a multi-use room, most clients go for the folding legs, but with conference centres they go for a fixed frame," says Millard, whose company has supplied a variety of venues from marinas to universities.
The Stacking Chair Company: Tel/fax: 01536 412082/525255
Lamata Contract Furniture: Tel: 01242 524777. www.lamata.co.uk
