What to send for a furniture quotation, in the right order
The quality of a quotation is set by the enquiry rather than by the supplier. Seven details turn a price list into a plan with a number on it, and most enquiries arrive with three.
Start with the room, not the furniture
Send the floor plan with dimensions, or a photograph of a hand-drawn plan with the wall lengths written on it. Room length and width, the counter run, the kitchen block, the door positions and the bin station are enough to produce a seat count and a layout. Where a plan does not exist, five measurements taken with a tape will do.
Mark the ceiling height if the room has a mezzanine or a low soffit, and mark any column, because a column changes a wall run from a bench into two tables and a gap. Those two details decide more of the layout than any style preference.
Say what the room has to do
Covers at peak, dayparts, and whether the trade is families, workers on a break or delivery collection. The room that turns three times at lunch needs aisles and a queue band; a room that trades all day needs seats people will sit in for twenty minutes. The furniture that follows from those two briefs is different, and the difference is not visible in a photograph.
fast food layout planning works from those numbers rather than from a product list, so the enquiry that leads with them gets a usable first reply instead of a catalogue.
The five practical details
Quantity by model or by zone, the delivery country and port, the finish reference or a photograph of the existing furniture, the date the room has to open, and whether the site has a forklift. Those five answer the questions that would otherwise come back as an email loop, and the last one decides the packing.
Where a finish has to match something already in the room, send a physical sample rather than a photograph. Colour matching from a photograph is not possible, and a supplier who says otherwise is guessing.
What comes back
The reply within two working days normally carries a seat count, a zone-by-zone layout sketch, the models proposed for each zone and a price for the room. Where the plan looks wrong, it is flagged rather than quoted around, because a 700 mm aisle is a question rather than a line item.
seat count planning is the part that most buyers find useful first, since it settles an argument inside their own business before any money is committed. custom fast food furniture is priced from the same document, with the non-standard item marked separately.
Sending it
request a quote with the plan attached, or send the same information by email with the plan photographed. Models already chosen can be quoted directly; a room with no model numbers gets a proposal rather than a price, and both are useful at different stages.
fast food furniture manufacturer enquiries that arrive with the plan and the date are answered fastest, because nothing has to be asked twice. fast food furniture quoted against a complete brief usually lands within ten percent of the final order; quoted against a partial one it does not, and the revision costs a week.
Send the delivery country as a country rather than as a city. Freight is priced from a port and duty is set at a border, so a city name alone leaves the quotation guessing on both, and guessing is what makes two suppliers look thirty percent apart when they are quoting different things.
Where a project has a budget rather than a specification, say so. made to drawing furniture and stock ranges can both be shaped to a number, and a supplier who knows the number quotes something buildable rather than something aspirational that gets value-engineered twice before it is ordered.
What buyers ask about this
Is a hand-drawn plan acceptable?
Yes, with the wall lengths written on it. Photograph of a sketch on a table is enough to start.
What if I have no floor plan at all?
Send the room dimensions and the door positions. The first reply will be a layout proposal rather than a price.
How many models should I choose from?
Three per zone is enough. More choices slow the decision without improving it.
Do you need the delivery address at enquiry stage?
Only the country and the port. Exact address is needed at booking, not at quotation.
Related notes
Reading a QSR set quotation sheet without getting caught
Seat count per square metre: the arithmetic that survives a plan
Send the floor plan, not just a model number
Room size, counter run, covers at peak and the delivery country. The reply carries seat counts, aisle widths and a written quotation.