The last year saw (2007) only a marginal growth of about 0.3%  in the UK office furniture market, says a new report of the Office Furniture Market, which is now available via ResearchandMarkets.com. Worse still, the report predicts a tougher time in 2008 with hardly any growth expected this year.

The positive thing though is that growth is expected starting 2009 and is likely to grow at a modest pace until 2012. The trend will be towards space-saving designs in desking and storage.

the 5 sectors covered in the report include:

• wooden desks that encompass all types of desking with wood or fibreboard worktops;


• other wooden furniture such as mobile pedestals, display units, shelves, racking, screens, panels, cupboards, bookcases and cabinets;


• metal cupboards and filing cabinets;


• other metal furniture such as high-level shelving and storage units, screens, panels, display stands, mobile pedestals, 2-drawer cabinets, desks with metal worktops, metal tables and trolleys; and lastly,


• upholstered swivel seating that include task or operator chairs and executive chairs, and orthopaedic chairs for the office.

More details about this latest market research report can be found here.

Property services company Work Services has bagged a UK-wide term contract to provide furniture repair, disposal, and movement and churn services across the entire Barclays 1800 branch network.

Together with Atkins, Work Services operates a delivery network providing office furniture service. With its reliance on one service provider, Barclays and Atkins will enjoy faster response times, efficiencies of scale and a more customer-focused office furniture service. Atkins already works with Work Services to deliver a similar office furniture service for all 1,500 HBOS buildings.  

“It (this contract) provides growth in an area where we believe we have competitive edge through the ability to provide a uniform, cost-efficient, integrated and truly national office furniture solution,” said Craig Eastwood, CEO of parent Work Inc Group.