textile rental focus

Dining in style

1 October 2006



Décor and style are increasingly important factors in hotel and restaurant dining. Table linen must play its part but also has to be practical. Elizabeth Griffin reports


The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright said: "Dining is and always was a great artistic opportunity." Today, in the age of the celebrity chef, presentation and style an essential part of a restaurant or hotel brand. Restaurant reviews are as likely to comment on the decor as the food.

For while food remains all-important, customer expectations have increased across the board, and this extends to table linen – the canvas for the chef's culinary creativity. As Chris Moore, sales director at supplier Richard Haworth, says: “There has been an increase in the number of people eating out as a result TV cookery programmes. Restaurants have become more sophisticated and standards of food, décor and ambience have increased.”

Restaurant-goers will often cite the quality of food, wine and service as the essential elements of enjoyable dining. However, table linen can have a subtle impact, which even if not consciously acknowledged, can contribute to the customer's lasting impression of the establishment.

Richard Phillips, procurement manager at Hilton UK & Ireland observes that while guests don’t necessarily remember the quality of the linen when visiting a Hilton restaurant, the linen must be of a consistently high standard, for customers will notice if it is not and that may detract from their overall impression.”

Carefully selected tablecloths and napkins enhance the ambience, , complementing the establishment’s décor. For example, boutique-hotels that wish to create a unique impression may choose less conventional table furnishings, with fashionable colours, stronger textures or personalised motifs.

At Richard Haworth, Moore can give an number of examples of such customised work: The company offers up to 33 colours in the Signature Plus range, with the caveat that for larger orders it will dye and produce fabric to meet a customer's design.

“We recently matched napkins to the coloured vein in a white plate for the Gary Rhodes restaurant on the cruise liner Arcadia. We have also been asked to match the paint colours on the walls of new boxes at Ascot.”

Moore says that demand for larger banqueting tables, has prompted the company to develop a wider fabric, allowing larger tablecloths to be made without joins. He adds that table runners have taken on a new lease of life, and the has undertaken a number of projects where it embroiders a logo or crest, placed so that it is prominent on the table. For example, the company produced linen with the BWFC logo for the White's Hotel at the Reebok stadium.

Likewise Mark Lockwood, managing director of Linen Connect, cites a sharp increase in bespoke items in the last year including woven names, one-off colours and jacquard designs.

This year has also seen the launch of a custom-woven wedding napkin from textile manufacturer Hilden. Featuring a design of hearts, ribbons and wedding bells, in a warm cream colour, the napkin is proving popular, and the company is developing other special designs

“The market has moved towards more modern colour choices, with combinations of strong bold colours and neutral shades becoming increasingly popular,” says Boyd Hargreaves, marketing director. “Black, browns and natural colours such as olive green are becoming more predominant and are especially popular when combined with plain linens.” Hargreaves says that two new colours - cocoa and slate - have been added to the company's plain weave range, extending the colour choice to 23.

Moore says that coloured linens enable a restaurant to change the environment or theme a room for a specific event: “For larger functions, plain white table and chair covers can be enhanced with the use of different coloured bows, sashes, and napkins.”

Fresh linen can add a touch of elegance and luxury to an otherwise unexceptional eatery. Indeed, some lower-end restaurants, and increasingly, gastro-pubs, that cannot stretch to offering a linen table cloth may nonetheless aspire to the fine dining ethos through the use of crisp white napkins upon dark, polished-wood tables.

Moore acknowledges this trend: “The general standard has increased with the bottom of the market being pulled up. Basic restaurants that previously offered a paper napkin are now using table linen.” He adds that the late night curry house is being replaced by a modern style Indian restaurant, selling sophisticated food, premium lagers and featuring the latest décor and table settings.”

However, there are limitations within the market, as Lockwood at Linen Connect says: “The filter down process can be considerable as the restriction on budgets is far greater within the middle to lower end of the market.”

As with cutlery, the cleanliness of linen is to key to maintaining customer confidence. Stain release and durability is therefore of great importance if a business is to maintain high linen standards while containing replacement costs.

Hargreaves says that Hilden’s: understanding of hoteliers’ design requirements is combined with extensive knowledge of laundering processes. This knowledge is the result of years of working with world-leading laundries and, more recently, with a new textile rental consortium of six major UK laundries.

Ease of laundering appears to be an important consideration for buyers, not only at laundries, but at hotels and restaurants too. In response Hilden's Alpha spun polyester range combines design with performance. Hargreaves says: “This hard-wearing, long-lasting fabric offers low shrinkage, stain resistance and colour retention - everything you'd expect from polyester, except the feel of man-made fibres.”

Hilton uses table linen in a number of its restaurants, favouring a mixture of cotton and spun polyester items in traditional styles, with most of the linen rented. Phillips says: “Hilton selects linen companies according to quality, appearance and cost. However, the actual service that is provided is also a vital factor. Hilton insists on a tight service level agreement to ensure consistency of quality, accurate quantities and timely delivery.”

Linen Connect says that a large number of customers are switching from filament polyester, to top-end spun polyester in plain and pattern designs. “Linen rental companies are driven by the needs of hotels and restaurants. This obviously has to be balanced against performance and laundry processing requirements. Top end spun polyester is offering unrivalled stain release as well as excellent drape,” says Lockwood.

Linen Connect's has recently added Renoir spun-polyester table linen to its range and this promises, high performance along with an extensive colour choice.

Richard Haworth’s Moore also sees the benefits of newer fabrics: “Polyester generally comes in a large range of colours, and while the trend is to stick with white cloths the ability to mix and match napkins, chair covers, and runners is in high demand.” He adds: “We have seen an increase in the sales of 100% polyester (Signature Plus) table linen. It is much easier to process, can wash at lower temperatures and the colour-fastness, stain release and life cycle is better than cotton.”

John Lancashire is the European sales director for napery fabrics at Milliken which produces the Signature fabrics and works closely with its UK partner, Richard Haworth. He says that Milliken’s Signature Plus enables laundries/OPLs to process linen at 50C instead of the usual 70/80C, thus saving energy costs, and offering other processing savings. This helps the textile rental industry in its cost reduction initiatives.

The Hopsack range from Hilden advances the manufacturer's Alpha concept, and is designed to allow all to enjoy linens previously only enjoyed by higher-class establishments.

The company recognised the esteem in which Irish linen is held, but was also aware of the prohibitive cost and customers’ worries about keeping this expensive fabric pristine.

It therefore developed its Alpha technology, to combine the natural sensation of Irish linen with the practicality of spun polyester.

But there is also continued demand for traditional fabrics as Lockwood at Linen Connect observes. “Commodity table linen, cotton Ivyleaf and satin band, is still popular, although, we have raised the specification in order to add value in terms of longevity.”

Hilden also appreciates that many still prefer a more traditional style, so its Ivyleaf cotton linen has been upgraded for superior feel and performance.

Andy Jamshidzadeh, director of DG Textiles notes the availability of polyester/cotton alternatives but says: “Most of the well established restaurants prefer 100% cotton linen. Some might argue that polycotton lasts longer, but in my experience nothing is better than 100% cotton, which washes and irons beautifully, and if treated properly, has a lifespan of over two years.”

He says that he has seen great competition among suppliers, and that he is competing with poor quality imports, but he adds that quality standards are still very important in the best UK restaurants.

The market is undoubtedly upping its game as customer expectations to continue to rise. Moore says that this is even spreading to the home where the “Changing rooms” culture is growing as people imitate what they see in restaurants. “We have seen a massive increase in our web sales as a result. The hospitality rental market for people arranging their own functions is growing. We have witnessed an increase in sales to companies catering for weddings and other functions.”

Lockwood says: “Customer expectations have never been higher. Table linen is a fashion item and colours and designs are led by this. Economics inevitably play a huge part in customer choice, but the market is currently blessed with the widest choice of fabric, colour, and also performance that there has ever been.”


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