Rental of Office Furniture

Most office furniture is thrown away before it is broken or unusable. There are various reasons for this including varying staffing levels, the use of temporary staff for short term projects, changes in fashion or corporate style, and office moves. The rental of office furniture is one solution to the problem of fluctuations in the amount of office furniture needed in a modern working environment. By renting, the office user specifies the need for office furniture, but does not specify how it is procured. The responsibility for the origin and disposal of the furniture is now transferred from the user to a rental company, whose profits are determined by maximising the use of these assets. For a rental company to maximise profitability, the reuse of office furniture is a key goal. This is achieved by a combination of straight reuse and remanufacture of old or worn units.

We feel that rental is one way to minimise the waste of office furniture, particularly associated with short term projects or where ad-hoc teams need furniture for a brief period of time. This system works well in the USA where rental is seen as a integral part of the overall furniture market. In the UK, however, the market is much smaller and attitudes to renting are less well explored. Cort Furniture Rental was commissioned to perform a market survey to investigate the attitudes of office furniture procurers. A survey of their customers was performed to identify the problems preventing expansion in the marketplace. The overall conclusion was a culture to buy rather than rent. Customers deemed renting as a secondary option rather than a first choice.

This is an important insight into the psychology behind the slow uptake of remanufactured products in the UK, the full findings of the report can be found via the links on the left.

• About CRR
• Links
• Legal
• info@remanufacturing.org.uk
• +44 (0)1296 337165