Canteen Furniture

Canteen furniture for a depot, factory or warehouse leads a very different life from café or office furniture — daily use in workwear, knocks from boots and trays, and cleaning regimes that would wear out domestic-grade fittings in months. This page covers exactly one product family, and we will be straight about that scope: fully welded six-seat canteen tables and chairs in one unit, UK-made by GPC Industries, with steel or upholstered seats and one-way or two-way entry, from £1,420.92. If that is the format your welfare room needs, it is a very good version of it. If you need loose chairs, folding tables or school dining sets, we will say so plainly below — we do not sell them.

The range: fully welded six-seat canteen units

Every unit here is a single welded assembly — the table and all six seats share one frame, so there are no loose canteen chairs to scatter, stack, or walk off to other parts of the building. Table tops are light-grey MFC with PVC edging for impact protection, at a standard 710 mm table height with seats at 425 mm. Frames are powder coated in light grey using Germ Guard Active Technology paint — a sensible finish for shared eating areas — and the whole unit can be repositioned with a pallet truck when the room layout changes.

Model	Seats	Entry	Price
QST861Z	6 steel seats	One-way	£1,455.00
QST862Z	6 steel seats	Two-way	£1,455.00
VTE61Z	6 upholstered seats	One-way	£1,420.92
VTE62Z	6 upholstered seats	Two-way	£1,420.92

All four configurations are on the single GPC canteen tables product page — pick the configuration from the dropdown.

Steel or upholstered seats

The choice that actually matters in this range is the seat. Steel seats (QST861Z/QST862Z) are formed from 1.2 mm mild steel and are the right answer where the canteen is cleaned hard and used in dirty workwear — they wipe down in seconds and there is nothing to tear, stain or absorb spills. Standard colours are green, red, blue or dark grey, with other RAL colours available to match corporate colours. Upholstered seats (VTE61Z/VTE62Z) trade some of that wipe-down toughness for comfort over a full lunch break, and suit welfare rooms attached to offices or cleaner production areas. Slightly counter-intuitively, the upholstered units are the cheaper of the two.

One-way or two-way entry

One-way entry units seat all six users from the same side, so the unit sits flush against a wall and saves floor space. Two-way entry seats three per side and belongs in open floor, with access from both sides. Size the room on realistic peak sitting: a six-seat unit needs roughly a 2 m × 1.5 m footprint once you allow for seated users and a walkway, and a two-way unit needs that walkway on both sides.

Why fixed canteen tables and chairs, not loose sets?

In an industrial mess room, fixed canteen tables and chairs earn their keep in ways a loose set cannot: the floor under and around them clears in one pass because no chairs need lifting; seats cannot migrate to the smoking shelter or the packing bench; there is nothing to re-level or re-tighten over time; and the welded frame shrugs off the knocks that work loose the bolts on assembled furniture. The trade-off is honest too — a welded unit cannot be stacked away for a works meeting, and it seats exactly six. If your canteen doubles as a meeting or training room and must clear completely, folding furniture is genuinely the better buy, and it is not something we stock.

How much are canteen tables?

The straight answer to the question Google gets asked: loose café-style table-and-chair sets start around £100–£400 — fine for a small office kitchen, not built for an industrial canteen, and not something we sell. Folding canteen tables run roughly £100–£250 each, again not our territory. Fully welded industrial canteen seating units like the ones on this page run £1,420.92–£1,455.00 per six-seat unit — the premium buys the welded one-piece construction, the steel seats and a unit that will still be tight and level years into shift-pattern use. School dining halls with stacking or folding sets are better served by education furniture specialists.

What we don't sell

Honesty saves everyone time. We do not sell loose canteen chairs on their own, folding or round canteen tables, wooden canteen sets, or second-hand and clearance canteen furniture — if you are buying used welded units privately, check the seat-to-frame welds, the seat fixings and the tabletop edging before handing over money, because a failed weld on a one-piece unit is rarely economic to repair. We also do not make bench-style canteen seating: if what you actually want is bench seating for a changing area, that is our cloakroom benches range, explained in the changing room benches guide.

Fitting out the whole welfare area

Most canteen orders here are part of a wider welfare fit-out, and the rest of it can go on the same order: staff lockers (sized with the staff & workplace lockers guide), changing room benches, and smoking and cycle shelters for outside the door (see the shelter buying guide). For layout planning, table heights and the steel-vs-upholstered decision in more depth, the workplace canteen furniture buying guide covers it, and for RAL colour options or configuration advice, get in touch with our team.

Canteen furniture FAQs

What canteen furniture do you supply?

Fully welded six-seat canteen tables, made in the UK by GPC Industries, in four configurations on a single product page.

What are the four models?

QST861Z (6 steel seats, one-way entry), QST862Z (6 steel seats, two-way entry), VTE61Z (6 upholstered seats, one-way entry) and VTE62Z (6 upholstered seats, two-way entry).

Why are the seats fixed to the table?

Each unit is a single welded assembly, so there are no loose chairs to move, stack or lose.

What are the tabletops made from?

Light-grey MFC with PVC edging for impact protection.

What are the table and seat heights?

Table height 710mm, seat height 425mm.

What finish do the frames have?

Powder coated in light grey with Germ Guard Active Technology paint.

How thick are the steel seats?

They are formed from 1.2mm mild steel.

What seat colours are available?

Green, red, blue or dark grey. Other RAL colours are available to match corporate colours, please call for details.

What does one-way or two-way entry mean?

One-way entry seats all six users from the same side, so the unit sits against a wall. Two-way entry seats three per side and needs access from both sides.

Steel or upholstered seats?

Steel seats wipe down quickly and suit hard cleaning and dirty workwear. Upholstered seats are more comfortable over a full break and suit cleaner areas.

Do you sell loose canteen chairs or folding tables?

No. The range is the fully welded six-seat unit only. A welded unit cannot be stacked away and seats exactly six.

Where is the rest of the welfare range?

See lockers, cloakroom benches and outdoor shelters.