With precarious travel for the foreseeable future, it’s understandable that many of us want to invest more in our gardens. The exponential growth in demand experienced in the garden furniture industry combined with shortages caused by the COVID pandemic has ultimately resulted in delays across the whole industry. Continue reading below to find answers to some of our frequently asked questions in regards to these delays…

Our lockdown is over, why is it taking so long to deliver my garden furniture?

Despite the easing of restrictions here in the UK, this is not the same on the global scale. Many of our trusted suppliers manufacture their products across provinces in China, where production essentially came to a standstill at the beginning of the pandemic. The result of this was a significant build-up of backorders that were waiting to be fulfilled.

When the time came for workers to return to production lines, this was at a reduced capacity to curb an influx of COVID cases. Therefore, the backlog of garden furniture orders was being fulfilled at a slower rate than previously established.

On top of this, COVID outbreaks in the past few months have led to major delays and even the rejection of new export containers to ship out of Chinese ports. As partial restrictions continue in ports, the freight costs have also increased significantly. For example, standard pre-pandemic costs for a 40-foot container were £1,800-£2,000, which have now skyrocketed to £16,000 if businesses are even able to get a booking. For more information on global delays, we have listed various articles below that explain the processes well:

Extra things to consider…

  • Unfortunately, we have halted deliveries to Ireland and Northern Ireland due to COVID restrictions. Please keep checking back for further updates.
  • If you return to a product page of a garden furniture set you have already purchased, it may display a longer delivery time. However, don’t fear because this is likely to be explained by the incoming batch being sold out, and the new ETA refers to any new orders placed.

The timeline

  1. Orders are placed, raw materials are sourced and manufacturing the product:
    2 months
  2. Goods are transferred into containers, transported to a shipping port then loaded onto the ship: 2 weeks
  3. Ship travels from Chinese ports to the UK: 1 month
  4. Processed through customs clearance then delivered to suppliers warehouse: 1 week
  5. Unloaded and quality-checked at suppliers warehouse, sent to retailers warehouse: 2 weeks

Here we can see that the process takes approximately 4 months and a week from start to finish. However, as positive cases of COVID continue to disrupt and close any element of this process, alongside events such as the blockage of the Suez Canal in March, the whole process can be extended and take up to 5-6 months.


We understand how frustrating it is to wait for your order. Here at Mattressman, we’re doing everything in our power to ensure that orders are delivered as quickly as they can be. Having said this, given the situation that global production, shipping and trade is currently in, most of these circumstances are out of our control. In order to be clear and transparent with our customers, we hope this page has answered any questions you may have surrounding the order process of your garden furniture set. If you have any further queries surrounding this process, please feel free to contact our customer services team at customerservicesmattressman.co.uk.