David Andrew Furniture · Commercial FF&E
The rail behind the architect.
Hotels. Restaurants. Offices. Schools and civic spaces. Multi-unit residential. DAF runs the FF&E layer behind the architect and the GC — supplier disclosed on every line, lead times published per category, one fee, one PO consolidation. The owner sees the same number we see.
DAF is early stage. We do not own warehouses, install crews, customs brokers, or freight fleets — we coordinate them. What we hold is DAF Global Connect, a vetted supplier list, and a procurement model built on disclosed prices instead of hidden margins.
One line. Every number visible.
The buyer sees the workshop price. The freight. The fee. The total.
Source · blog/05-how-mass-market-furniture-rips-you-off
Retail equivalent: $3,995.
Mass-market retail (showroom-and-warehouse model) marks the same piece up 3–5×. The buyer carries inventory risk and pays for the showroom, the brand budget, the trade discount intermediary — layers DAF doesn’t have. Existing procurement firms run 30%+ markups with no supplier disclosure. Saving per sofa, at DAF’s rate: $2,435. At multi-unit volume that math compounds.
Source · STARTUP_POSITIONING, library-financial-modeling
Lead times · published per category
Multi-unit projects move at the speed of the slowest line. Plan to it, not around it.
| Category | Production | Shipping / freight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overseas casegoods | 16–22 weeks | 4–8 weeks ocean freight | Beds, dressers, wardrobes, millwork. Production + ocean transit. |
| Upholstery — DGC brands | 8–14 weeks | 4–8 weeks ocean freight | Sofas, lounge chairs, banquettes. Supplier named on your signed plan. |
| Short-run pieces — DGC catalog | 4–8 weeks | 4–8 weeks ocean freight | Side tables, accent chairs, dining chairs. Catalog or short-run via DAF Global Connect. |
Source · library-real-estate-development. Lead times quoted per line on your costed plan; actual workshops vary.
Three other ways to buy multi-unit FF&E
What DAF is not.
Mass-market retail
3–5× markup. Inventory risk on the buyer. Showroom, brand budget, retail staff, and brand discount layers baked into the shelf price.
In-house procurement at a design firm
Trade discount + design hours + opaque markup. The fee is buried inside a blended invoice. The buyer cannot see the workshop price.
Existing procurement firms
30%+ markup. No supplier disclosure. Trade-net buy at ~50% off retail, sell at ~30% off — the spread is the business model.
Source · STARTUP_POSITIONING
Sectors we run for
Hospitality
Hotels, restaurants, members’ rooms.
Guestrooms, lobbies, F&B floors. One PO consolidates the vendors on the signed spec list. Lead times published per category — casegoods, upholstery, loose — before the deposit clears. Brand-standard consistency held line by line.
Office FF&E
Workstations, conference, lounge.
Workstation chairs, conference furniture, lounge seating, reception millwork. One Specialist consolidates the spec list into a single sourced plan. Workshop origin disclosed. Supplier price plus 20% flat. No dealer margin in the middle.
Multi-unit residential
Developer projects.
Amenity lobbies, furnished suites, common-area fit-outs. Phased rollouts hold one supplier list across every floor. Repeat units stay on the same workshop and the same dye lot — written into the PO, not promised in a conversation.
Schools & civic
Classrooms, libraries, reception.
Procurement-side discipline that public-sector buyers expect: itemized line costs, supplier disclosure, lead-time documentation, freight and customs broken out separately. Plan PDF lands in a form a review committee can read.
Insurance & paper
We will carry what the project requires.
DAF carries Commercial General Liability insurance — $2M per occurrence / $5M aggregate, including products-completed operations (Tokio Marine Canada, via Zensurance). A certificate of insurance is available on request; any project-specific terms an owner or GC needs are put in writing before signing.
DAF is early stage. Insurance and paper requirements are one of the items walked through on the discovery call, sized to the project at signing — not held out as a generic schedule here.
DAF Global Connect
The supplier network.
Vetted workshops.
Every supplier on the list has disclosed origin, production capacity, and lead-time history. The same standards apply before a workshop is added.
Named on your plan.
The workshop appears on every line of the costed plan PDF. The buyer knows where the furniture is being built before the deposit clears.
Manufacturers can apply.
Workshops that meet Global Connect standards can apply to join. The network grows with the projects DAF runs.
From brief to PO
Send the brief.
Project type, unit count, zones to furnish, rough budget. Via the procurement form or direct email.
Plan comes back.
Itemized spec list, workshop named per line, supplier price, DAF fee, freight estimate, landed total. Lead times per category.
You approve.
Swap lines, cut lines, request alternatives. Nothing moves to PO until the plan is signed off.
50% deposit. PO issued.
Deposit clears, POs go out to suppliers on 30/70 or 30/40/30 deposit structures. Freight coordinated to the site.
Balance on delivery.
50% balance due on delivery and sign-off. Delivery lands at your specified receiving location; install is coordinated by your own team. One Specialist from DAF through the whole project.
Commercial brief
Send the brief. Plan back tomorrow.
Send the brief. A Specialist returns the costed plan: workshop named on every line, supplier price plus 20% flat, freight broken out, lead times per category. The discovery call walks through the insurance schedule, the reject-on-spec workflow, and the items not on the public page.
Supplier price + 20% flat · workshop named · 50/50 payment · lead times published per category · one Specialist, no handoffs