In recent months we have noted how the recession may have encouraged some in the hospitality sector to hold back on making investments into new and replacement restaurant furniture and hotel furniture.
But as positive performance indicators begin to return to the sector, it will become increasingly important that managers are able to keep their venues looking in a good state of repair, in order to win a greater share of the growing customer base.
With that in mind, now may be the time to put any delayed investments into hotel furniture and restaurant furniture back at the top of the agenda, as the hospitality sector is seemingly among the best performing service industries.
The Office for National Statistics published the latest Index of Services on January 28th 2014, for data collected in November 2013.
Overall, the services sector grew by 2.6% in the year to November 2013, with the four main categories used to separate businesses within the sector all posting positive growth.
The largest contribution came from business services and finance, which accounted for 1.3 percentage points out of the 2.6% total - equivalent to half of the entire growth of the services sector.
But next up was distribution, hotels and restaurants, contributing some 0.8 percentage points, or just less than a third of the total.
Monthly growth was up, at 0.4% between October and November 2013, compared with 0.1% in the previous month.
Importantly, these are seasonally adjusted figures - so any influence of Christmas, for instance, should not have a direct bearing on short-term shifts in performance - although the most recent instalments in the series, from October 2013 onwards, are still potentially open to revision.
Provided that the preliminary indications of growth remain apparent in the finalised data, it seems both the short term and the long term are promising for hoteliers, restaurateurs and all in the hospitality and services industries.
This should mean higher levels of business and a growing customer base - and should free up funds for investments in new hotel furniture and restaurant furniture, which could in turn help establishments to gain a competitive edge over their local rivals.