12.11.12
Traditional pub furniture can be used to create clear areas for dining and socialising, helping to give your diners the space they need to enjoy their meals even at busy times.
Many pubs serve food even at peak times - for example, during televised football matches - and this can cause problems if there are no obvious areas for sit-down meals amid a forest of tall poseur tables, bar stools and standing-only areas.
By choosing pub furniture that serves these needs separately, you can cater for food customers and beer-drinkers separately - and tap into a fast-growing source of revenue for traditional pubs.
Jonathan Neame, chairman of the British Beer & Pub Association, noted the value of food to the sector in his speech at the recent BBPA Annual Dinner.
"We should celebrate that pubs are outperforming restaurants for food growth," he said. "We now serve one billion meals a year, and offer excellent value for money."
By contrast, rising taxation on beer has seen the number of pints served in pubs fall over the past year, despite the uplifting effect of events like the Olympics.
In the third quarter of 2012, UK pub and off-trade beer sales fell by 5.6%, with pub sales down 4.8% compared with the same quarter of the previous year.
This represents 117 million fewer pints served during the three-month period, leading the BBPA to call for urgent action on beer duty, in order to safeguard jobs in the sector.