Are you a restaurant, café, pub or club looking to expand your outdoor dining area in a COVID-Safe way?
We have over 25 years of experience in providing weather-proof shading solutions to the hospitality industry. In these difficult times you can trust us to give professional advice on the most cost effective way of covering your patrons.
We have a wide range of solutions including:
- Lightweight Café / Market umbrellas that can be safely used on specially designed heavy bases and easily packed up at the end of each day’s trade
- Heavy duty giant umbrellas perfect for covering larger areas. Normally these need to be permanently installed, but we also have very heavy bases for these that double as seating (refer image below).
- Café Barriers that can be used to fence and screen off areas.
- Marquees that can be used for service stations, staging, etc.
- All products can be branded with your venue logos or sponsors.
Got questions? We’ve got the answers…
I’m in Victoria. Are there Government grants available to help fund expanding my outdoor area and making it COVID-Safe?
We are a Melbourne-based business ourselves so know the pain that local business is feeling due to the restrictions. We are here to help make the process as easy as possible for you.
The Victorian government has announced a $290 million package designed to help Melbourne’s CBD and other hubs transition to outdoor dining. Under The Outdoor Eating and Entertainment Package councils and businesses outside Melbourne’s CBD will receive $87.5 million to make outdoor dining safe and practical.
A further $58 million will be used to establish $5,000 grants for hospitality businesses. Grants will fund the purchase of umbrellas, outdoor furniture, screens and other equipment. License and unlicensed cafés, restaurants, takeaway food businesses, pubs, taverns, bars and clubs with a payroll of less than $3 million will be eligible for the grants, which are expected to reach more than 11,000 businesses.
The state government will also work in partnership with the City of Melbourne to reshape the city’s CBD through a $100 million fund. The Melbourne City Recovery Fund will provide grants to CBD businesses, of which there are more than 16,500 registered.
The fund will make $30 million in grants available to small and medium businesses. Businesses who successfully apply will be able to use the grants to pay for equipment and convert rooftops, courtyards and other spaces into hospitality zones. They can also use the grants to cover the cost of remodelling internal layouts.
GRANT APPLICATIONS ARE NOW LIVE
If you are located in the City of Melbourne, click here.
For other localities, click here.
I’m not in Victoria, do you ship nation wide?
We sure do, all our products are professionally packaged for safe and secure shipping to anywhere in Australia.
I need shade ASAP to cover my customers, do you have stock available?
Our Café Umbrellas are in stock for immediate delivery in our standard colours of Black, White or Natural.
Custom branding or specific colours are made-to-order and would be ready in approx. 4 weeks. We can even hire you umbrellas while your custom ones are being produced (Melbourne only) or rush an order through production to meet an urgent deadline (additional cost may apply).
What size and style of umbrella do I need?
2m Square or 2.8m Octagonal Cafe Series umbrellas are perfect for footpath trading and small courtyards.
Larger 3m Square or 4.2m Octagonal Café Series umbrellas are ideal for larger open areas and big courtyards/streetscapes.
Our heavy duty Nova HD umbrellas are available in giant sizes like 4m and 5m Square. These will cover many tables and chairs and patrons. We even have an integrated lighting solution for these umbrellas so they can be used day and night.
My area gets pretty windy, how do I stop the umbrellas from blowing over?
Our heavy duty steel base plates and weighted PVC sandbags keep smaller umbrellas secure and can be easily moved an removed at end of trade if required.
For larger umbrellas we have a unique heavy base system that doubles as seating for customers:
We also have more permanent installation options and expert installers available to get them fitted properly.
Can’t I just buy a cheap umbrella from the local hardware store?
Our umbrellas are commercial grade and engineer certified. Many councils require a Certificate of Compliance Design for umbrellas to ensure they meet Australian standards. Some councils also have rules about how umbrellas must be secured to make sure they don’t fall over or blow away. We can help you meet all these requirements.
What about my staff, how do I protect them from the weather?
As well as umbrellas, we also manufacture “instant” or “pop-up” marquees that are perfect for covering service areas, entry points and point of sale equipment. Our marquees are available in stock in black or white in a range of sizes or can be customized in other colours and with branding.
Marquees can also be used as an alternative to umbrellas to cover patrons. The advantage with marquees is that side panels can be attached to fully enclose the space.
6x3m marquees can seat up to 6-12 people. Multiple marquees can be joined with velcro-on gutters to fill a large outdoor space and keep the punters shaded and dry.
We can also supply more permanent structural marquees in very large sizes (eg. 6m x 9m, 6m x 12m, 6m x 18m etc.).
