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Office Furniture Market Report 2001
Key Note Publications Ltd, Jan 2001
Apparent demand for new office furniture in the UK increased by 6.2% between 1996 and 2000, to an estimated £1.3bn. Expenditure on new furniture has grown slowly because many private- and public-sector buyers prioritised spending on new electronic office equipment in the few years immediately before the new millennium, in order to achieve a trouble-free changeover. Companies and institutions with the financial resources to invest in new electronic equipment and furniture at the same time have helped to influence growth in total demand, but the steady upward trend in the growth of the service sector, and its contribution to employment in the national economy, is of even greater significance.
Office furniture comprises desks and tables, seating, storage units, panels, screens and the accessories which are considered to provide useful additions to the main furniture, e.g. shelves and free-standing shelf units.
The market for and style of office furniture is heavily influenced by the needs of the open-plan office, which has virtually replaced the cellular office in most organisations. Modern offices make extensive use of electronic technology, and the need to accommodate the growing numbers and variety of this equipment has resulted in radical changes being made in office layouts and furniture designs. Making more efficient use of existing space is regarded as vital. Changes in working practices and the advent of the open office, have encouraged the use of tables, rather than heavy desks, as these are lightweight and can be easily reconfigured into new arrangements. The mobility of equipment, other than heavy filing cabinets and storage cupboards, has become very important in allowing greater flexibility in layouts, which many managements prefer. Other changes include using computer databases to achieve high-density file storage whilst utilising the minimum amount of floor space, making the filing simultaneously accessible to the staff from any networked workstation in the company.
Despite the possibility of future radical changes in office environments, it is virtually certain that the conventional office, based mainly on open-plan layouts, will provide the basic market for office furniture manufacturers and their distributors for the near future. Over the period 2001 to 2005, Key Note expects that apparent UK demand will grow by a total of 7.8% from £1.3bn to £1.4bn, at manufacturers' selling prices (msp). This forecast is based on the continuation of economic growth at approximately the same rate as the historical average, i.e. between 2% and 2.5% p.a. (per annum), with more people employed in the service sector and the development of electronic technology that encourages the replacement of present office furniture with types that are more suitable for housing the latest equipment. The implementation of changes will, however, be slow and therefore the growth rate for new demand will also be relatively modest.
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