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The UK office furniture business has without doubt been severely affected by the credit crunch. A lot of office furniture upgrade projects have been suspended or cancelled whilst companies attempt to weather the economic storm until the economy bounces back. One recurring trend is that many companies are reducing headcount and opting to relocate into less sizeable and cheaper premises if their lease permits. Undoubtedly this is positive news for Office Relocation companies.

When a business moves into new premises it is frequently cheaper to discard their existing furniture and buy a good quality but cheap range of commercial office furniture such as Maestro office furniture. A good quality budget office desk can cost as little as £150 fully installed. The cost of disassembling and removing old furniture, moving it to the new office and reinstalling it can frequently be greater than the cost of new so it is sometimes a good idea to think about buying new furniture instead. Office furniture firms have reported a huge rise in inquiries about second hand office furniture this year, both for organisations trying to offload their office furniture and firms and individuals wanting to purchase business furniture. Plenty of office staff are made redundant every week either due to their employer closing down or by their employer’s cost reduction programmes while attempting to weather the downturn. The job cuts have triggered plenty of requests from firms, commercial property agents and insolvency practitioners needing to clear property and get rid of any old furniture.

The economic downturn and subsequent redundancy have prompted plenty of unemployed people to open new businesses because for many self-employment is the only viable option to unemployment. Without doubt these start-up businesses are endeavouring to keep their initial costs under strict control and thus many investigate the possiblity of buying used office furniture rather than new. Even though there is a lot of second hand office furniture available there can be substantial labour, transport and other costs needed for carefully disassembling, taking away and individually marketing the furniture in addition to the onward delivery and installation expenses. Although cost savings can definitely be made, the savings made are not so high as many would like. New office desks and drawers can frequently be purchased at approximately the same cost or for only a little more than second hand furniture. High end office furniture products such as hand crafted walnut veneer desks and reception furniture which usually are priced at thousands of pounds when new are a different case and huge cost savings can be made on these products. The hard work is in locating the right walnut desks, boardroom table or reception desking for your exact needs.