Guides / Sourcing timeline

How long table and chair sets take to source and deliver

In short: Plan on 45–70 days from approved drawing to a container at your door, and do not overlap the sampling window with the production window. The weeks that slip are almost always approval weeks, not production weeks.

Lead time

45–70 days door to door

Sampling

15 days, no sampling fee

MOQ

1 set

Load rating

150 kg whole-chair static

Custom sizes

No upcharge, no tooling fee

Where the calendar actually goes

From the day a drawing is approved, production of table and chair sets takes 15–30 days at a factory that is running normally. Sampling takes another 15 days before that, and the sample has to travel to you, be reviewed, and come back approved. Add booking, cut-off and transit and the realistic total is 45–70 days to your warehouse door.

The mistake that costs projects their opening date is treating sampling and production as one block. They are sequential: nothing can be produced until the sample is approved, and nothing can be approved until the sample exists. A buyer who starts the process in week one and books a delivery in week six has booked a fantasy.

The five dates to put in the contract

Write five dates down: drawing approval, sample dispatch, sample approval, production start, and container cut-off. Every one of them is a date you control or a date the factory controls, and nothing is ambiguous once they are on paper.

Two of the five are usually the ones that move. Drawing approval moves because the buyer's own client has not signed off the layout. Sample approval moves because the sample arrives with the wrong finish and nobody notices for a week. Build two weeks of slack around those two, and leave production alone.

What a fast supplier can and cannot compress

A factory with its own workshop can compress the production window to 15 days by running your order on a dedicated line. It cannot compress the sample window below about 12 days, because the finish has to cure before the sample ships. Any promise that removes the curing time is a promise to send a sample with a finish that will look different in production.

What a good factory does do is start cutting frames for table and chair sets on the approved sample dimensions before the sample is formally signed, at its own risk. That is where the two weeks come back from, and it is a fair question to ask whether your supplier will carry it.

What happens after delivery

Two things cause most after-delivery problems: settlement in the first weeks, and a finish that does not survive the cleaning chemical the venue actually uses. Both are preventable. Let the furniture settle in its final room for a few days before final positioning, and ask for the cleaning instruction in writing with the cleaning agent named.

Replacements and spare parts ship with the next order rather than as a single parcel, which keeps the cost of a small claim proportionate. Tell the factory what failed and send a photograph; a joint that opened in service is information the next run can use.

MOQ, tooling and what a first order looks like

The minimum order for table and chair sets is 1 set. There is no tooling fee and no charge for a custom size or a custom fabric, because the factory builds to drawing rather than to a fixed mould. A first order is normally one 40HQ or a shared container with a second project, and the price per unit does not change at that volume.

This matters more than it sounds. Buyers often assume a custom dimension carries a premium and accept a stock size that does not fit the room. On restaurant furniture built to drawing, the custom size and the stock size cost the same.

Why the specification, not the price, is the decision

Two quotations for table and chair sets are only comparable when they answer the same written specification. Once they do, the remaining difference is construction and material grade — which is exactly the difference that shows up in year two, in a room full of guests, with no spare chairs.

The cheapest reliable path is to fix the specification, fix the drawing, and then compare. It takes one extra week at the start and removes most of the reasons a project has to buy the same furniture twice.

Where this fits on our own range

Our round table and chair sets, stackable restaurant table and chair sets and metal restaurant table and chair sets are built to the same drawing discipline, so the numbers above apply there without translation. These are the pages the same workshop builds to, so the dimensions, finishes and load ratings discussed above apply directly rather than in principle.

Two models built to the specification discussed above are the JP-S065 table and chair set and the JP-SET31 table and chair set; both are quoted against your drawing rather than a stock size.

Frequently asked questions

What load rating should I ask for?

Ask for a whole-chair static load rating that applies the load to the seat and back assembly together, not a seat-only figure. The target for restaurant use is 150 kg.

Can the dimensions be changed?

Yes. Every model can be re-dimensioned, and the price basis does not change. The requirement is that the final dimensions are confirmed on the drawing before production, because a custom size is a new structure.

What is the lead time for table and chair sets?

Sampling takes about 15 days and production 15–30 days after the approved sample, so plan on 45–70 days from drawing approval to a container at your door, including transit and customs.

Sources and further reading

restaurant furniture manufacturer — foshanrestaurant.com
custom restaurant furniture — foshanrestaurant.com