Chairs per container on a multi-unit order, worked out from the packed volume
Container planning goes wrong at the same point on almost every programme: the quantity is calculated from the chair, not from the carton the chair arrives in. Packed volume per unit, the stacking pattern inside the box and the space a mixed load wastes are the three numbers that decide how many openings one shipment covers.
· 8 minute read · Written for Buyers planning freight across a multi-store wave
01Start from the packed volume, not the product size
Chair dimensions say nothing about freight. Two chairs with the same envelope can differ by a third in packed volume, because one stacks four high with a nested seat and the other ships upright with a fixed back. The number to ask for is cubic metres per unit as packed, with the carton dimensions and the units per carton stated alongside it.
Freight is charged and planned in cubic metres for light furniture, and chairs are light. High-cube boxes carry roughly 26 to 28 tonnes by weight and around 65 usable cubic metres by volume, so a load of chairs runs out of space long before it runs out of payload.
02What a 40 ft container actually holds
The nominal internal volume of a 40 ft high-cube is about 76 cubic metres, from 12.03 m long, 2.35 m wide and 2.69 m high. Nobody loads 76. Cartons do not fill the gap above the door header, the last row never sits flush, and pallets waste more space than they save. Planning on 85 to 90 per cent of nominal for a single-SKU carton load is realistic; on a mixed load with different carton sizes, plan 75 to 82 per cent.
Worked on those figures, a stackable side chair at 0.08 cubic metres per unit fills a high-cube with roughly 700 to 750 units. The same chair shipped upright with a fixed back at 0.20 cubic metres per unit gives about 280. The difference is not small enough to absorb in a wave schedule, and it is the first thing to confirm before a quantity is promised to a franchisee.
03Carton, crate and the space they waste
Corrugated cartons with corner boards are the default for chairs, and they compress the load slightly when stacked, which is what keeps the top row from shifting. Timber crates add 20 to 40 mm of wall thickness on every side and cannot be nested, so a crated chair costs 10 to 15 per cent more volume than a cartoned one. Crates earn that back on stone tops and on anything with a veneer face that a corner impact would write off.
Tables change the arithmetic because tops ship flat and bases ship heavy. Knocked-down tops stacked on their faces use the container floor efficiently; assembled tops with fixed bases do not. Where a programme orders chain tables alongside seating, ask for the knocked-down packing as the default, and confirm that the assembly hardware ships in the same carton as the top rather than in a separate box that arrives at the wrong store.
04Weight rarely decides anything
Steel-framed side chairs run 5.5 to 7 kg. Seven hundred of them weigh under five tonnes against a payload allowance of 26 tonnes or more, so the weight check is a formality on seating and a real constraint only on stone tops, cast bases and dense booth carcasses.
Where weight does bite is on a mixed load. Booth units with a plywood carcass and a steel frame run 40 to 60 kg per linear metre, and a store with twelve metres of bench carries more weight in carcass than in three hundred chairs. Load the heavy runs first, against the front wall, and keep the light cartons for the doors.
05Mixing tables and seating in one load
One container per store is the cleanest arrangement and the most expensive per cubic metre. Grouping stores is cheaper and harder, because each store's cartons have to stay identifiable. per-store packing solves it: every carton carries the store number and the room, and the packing list is built in the same order as the container, so unloading at a distribution centre does not turn into a sorting exercise.
Practical store-level arithmetic for a 120-seat format: 90 side chairs at 0.08 cubic metres, 14 knocked-down tables at 0.12, and eight metres of bench in three sections at 0.55 each comes to about 10.5 cubic metres before packing slack. Allow 12 to 13 cubic metres per store and a high-cube carries five stores, which is the figure that should be in the rollout schedule next to the opening date.
06What to confirm before the quantity is fixed
Ask for packed volume per unit, units per carton, carton dimensions and gross weight, all four in writing. Ask whether the figure includes corner boards, because a quote that excludes packing protection is not comparable with one that includes it.
Then confirm the loading plan rather than the total. The plan showing the last row and the door clearance proves somebody has loaded this product before; a total alone does not. The franchise chairs range ships cartoned and stackable as standard, and C101 side chair is the unit most programmes use to establish the per-store volume before the first wave. Inspection before loading is separate again, and it is covered under quality control.
?Questions buyers ask
How many chairs fit in a 40 ft container?
About 700 to 750 stackable side chairs at 0.08 cubic metres per unit, or around 280 of the same chair shipped upright. The packed volume decides it, not the chair dimensions.
Does weight ever limit a chair order?
Rarely. Seating runs 5.5 to 7 kg per unit against a payload of 26 tonnes or more, so volume fills first. Weight becomes the constraint on stone tops, cast bases and booth carcasses.
Should each store get its own container?
Only for the first store in a wave. Grouping four to five stores per high-cube is normal once cartons carry the store number and the packing list follows the loading order.
+Related notes
Booth dimensions for a chain restaurant, in the order they get fixed
Send the store list and the opening dates
Store count, the seat count per unit, the drawing you are working from and the opening dates for the first wave, which is enough to price a schedule and hold a production slot.