Office Chairs Inc. was founded about four decades ago.  From the beginning, their goal was to manufacturer quality products of great value with low lead times.  Over those decades,their business has grown and they now have over 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Santa Fe Springs, CA.  And like all Church Furniture Guy endorsed manufacturers, they stand behind all their products with the goal of 100% customer satisfaction.

Office Chair Inc.’s product line consists of Executive, Conference, Task, Reception, Guest and Soft Seating.  They have relationships with some of leading fabric manufacturers such as Momentum Textiles, C.F. Stinson, and Culp .  These relationships result in some of the shortest lead times in the industry for custom upholstered seating.

For today’s churches, Office Chair Inc. has positioned itself well as a mid-market manufacturer.  Their entire line is available at great savings to churches through Save Your Church Money.  Please be sure and contact SYCM for all of your church seating needs.

Over the years that followed, I had the opportunity to attend several all-day conferences at this center.  I would sit in the main auditorium for hours at a time in the chairs they had purchased.  When I first sat down in one of these chairs, I immediately noticed how comfortable it was.  But what surprised me was how comfortable it was even after sitting in it all day.  I remember commenting on several occasions to staff members of the conference center how much I appreciated their choice of seating.  Like each of you, I had experienced many times at other venues discomfort after being seated for less than an hour.  Being comfortable on a chair after several hours of sitting certainly enhanced my experience at their events.

Several years ago we needed several hundred chairs for a similar environment at our church.  I decided early on we should purchase the same chair the conference center had purchased, one that was perfectly suited to the desired application.  I made the necessary inquiries and discovered the ELAN Series from Comfortek Seating.  My decision was confirmed early on when I learned the nickname for the ELAN is “The Eight Hour Chair”. That was seven years ago now, and we could not be more pleased with our decision. Several other churches have now made the decision to purchase this same chair after visiting New Hope and enjoying ours.

Since our purchase I have discovered several other manufacturers produce similar chairs to the ELAN from Comfortek Seating.  However, none carry the attractive pricing that Comfortek offers to the church community.  So from years of personal experience as a consumer, and now for the past few years as the Church Furniture Guy, the ELAN has been and continues to be my favorite church chair!  You can read about its attributes here.  And as always, feel free to contact me with questions and comments.

One more quick suggestion:  Be sure and connect with Save Your Church Money if you have interest in the ELAN or any other type of church seating.  Their expertise and pricing strategy is of great value to churches across our country.

What do I mean by a “Hybrid Approach”? As you might suspect, this is a strategy where the manufacturer both sells direct and markets their products through a dealer network.  But how are they able to motivate dealers to distribute their products when they’re in a sense competing with these dealers by selling direct?  It would seem that no dealer would advance the products of a manufacturer doing so.

Well, the reason dealers are willing to do so is summed up in one phrase, “two-tiered pricing”.  Suppose our manufacturer makes church seating that they sell for $75 a chair to churches direct.  The church believes they’re getting the best price possible on their worship seating because they’re purchasing direct from the manufacturer.  But what the church does not realize is dealers for our manufacturer can purchase the same chair for $65 a chair which leaves room for the dealer to mark the chairs up a few dollars and still save churches some money.  The idea that a third party (our dealer) could be added to the sale of the chairs from the manufacturer to the church and still produce savings defies logic, yet it happens every day.

I encourage you to always check with low overhead dealers such as Save Your Church Money before purchasing.  You may be surprised at the savings your church may realize!

Over those same years I have been thrilled to see three of our staff members step out to plant churches! I have family members who are also planting churches. And as I interact with them on a regular basis, I experience again through them the importance of every dollar!

They and thousands like them are the reason for Save Your Church Plant Money coming into existence! Save Your Church Plant Money.com is committed to assisting church planters across this country by:

* Offering practical advice on church furnishings options for church plants and their unique environments!
* Leveraging the buying power of Save Your Church Money.com to provide at-cost pricing!
* Journeying with each church planter through each life phase of their church as growth and needs develop!

You can contact Save Your Church Plant Money here.

• Weight: The most common style of worship chair weighs around 20 pounds.  If you have to reset a 500 seat auditorium, that means more than 10,000 pounds have to be moved.  That will build a few muscles!  In addition, standard worship chairs stack six or seven high, and the higher you have to lift a chair, the more that weight affects your handling.  There are lighter-weight alternatives of chair styles for worship of course, but the trade-off is always higher costs.  However, I always encourage churches to take a serious look at these options as the benefits over time for handling can be tremendous.
• Gripping Points: Handling chairs becomes far easier when the chairs have convenient gripping points for lifting and moving.  Some worship chairs provide such gripping points, others do not.  If your application calls for chairs to be moved regularly, making sure such gripping points are available is important.  Look for a bar running laterally across the top back of the chair.  These provide a great grip point and with a wise choice of frame finishes, looks great as well.  It’s far better to have your hands rub on metal than repeatedly on the fabric itself from a “fabric wear and tear” viewpoint.
• Chair Trucks: When moving a large number of chairs, not having enough chair trucks can greatly impede the process.  I recommend one chair truck for every 100 chairs that need to be moved.  This provides a good balance between those stacking the chairs and those moving them.  Make sure your chair trucks have good quality tires and side rails to help prevent chairs from slipping off the side of the bottom plate for safety is important.  Save Your Church Money has a great selection of chair trucks at low prices so be sure and obtain a quote from them if you’re planning to purchase.

• Frame Strength:  Far and away, the primary factor that determines chair durability is the strength of the frame.  How do you determine if the frame is strong?  Specifications to consider include the gauge of metal used to construct the frame.  Also look for how many lateral cross members the chair has, both connecting legs to each other and those under and behind the seat.  Lateral stability is accomplished through these cross members.  Is the frame a wire rod frame or of tubular construction?  Tubular almost always provides more stiffness and longer life for the chair.
• Fabric Endurance:  Fabric is rated in “double rubs”.   This term refers to how fabrics are tested before they are released for the church furniture market.  Essentially a machine rubs the fabric twice, imitating a person sitting down and getting up.  That equals one “double rub”.  Look for fabrics that have a minimum of 150,000 double rubs for their rating.  Some will have twice that, but unfortunately some will have far less.
• Foam Quality:  Chair foam quality can have a huge range.  Some foam will be very soft at first and this may lead to a church chair purchase based on the appearance of comfort.  However, keep in mind that foam will only get softer over time, never firmer.  I recommend you choose a chair that is more on the firm side when purchasing.  In a few years you’ll not be “bottoming out” like you will by purchasing a softer foam.  Also, it’s wise to only purchase chairs that have the foam compressed before applying the fabric.  This way as the foam softens over the time, the fabric will stay taut and not wrinkle, something I see often.

As always, there’s more I could add here.  Please contact me with any questions you might have.  You can also forward questions to Save Your Church Money where you’ll find expertise on this subject and some recommendations for chairs that exhibit great durability.