diff --git a/src/reportengine/app.py b/src/reportengine/app.py
index 84e0565..714da5e 100644
--- a/src/reportengine/app.py
+++ b/src/reportengine/app.py
@@ -175,9 +175,12 @@ def argparser(self):
                         help='matplotlib style file to override the built-in one.',
                         default=None)
 
-        parser.add_argument('--formats', nargs='+', help="formats of the output figures",
+        parser.add_argument('--figure-formats', nargs='+', help="formats of the output figures",
                         default=('png', 'pdf',))
 
+        parser.add_argument('--table-formats', nargs='+', default=('csv',), choices=["parquet", "csv"],
+                            help="Format to save tables as. Note csv is the only human readable format.")
+
         parser.add_argument('-x', '--extra-providers', nargs='+',
                             help="additional providers from which to "
                             "load actions. Must be an importable specifiaction.")
@@ -281,6 +284,16 @@ def init(self, cmdline=None):
         import faulthandler
         faulthandler.enable()
         args = self.get_commandline_arguments(cmdline)
+        if 'parquet' in args['table_formats']:
+            try:
+                import pyarrow
+            except ModuleNotFoundError:
+                raise ModuleNotFoundError(
+                        "Failed to import module pyarrow. "
+                        "This is a required dependency to save "
+                        "tables in the parquet format. "
+                        "Please run conda install pyarrow and try again."
+                        )
         self.init_logging(args)
         sys.excepthook = self.excepthook
         try:
diff --git a/src/reportengine/environment.py b/src/reportengine/environment.py
index 4e567a8..004dd1a 100644
--- a/src/reportengine/environment.py
+++ b/src/reportengine/environment.py
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ class EnvironmentError_(Exception): pass
 }
 
 class Environment:
-    def __init__(self, *, output=None, formats=('pdf',),
+    def __init__(self, *, output=None,
+                 figure_formats=('pdf',), table_formats=('csv',),
                  default_figure_format=None, loglevel=logging.DEBUG,
                  config_yml = None,
                  **kwargs):
@@ -38,7 +39,9 @@ def __init__(self, *, output=None, formats=('pdf',),
             self.output_path = pathlib.Path(output).absolute()
         else:
             self.output_path = output
-        self.figure_formats = formats
+
+        self.table_formats = table_formats
+        self.figure_formats = figure_formats
         self._default_figure_format = default_figure_format
         self.loglevel = loglevel
         self.extra_args = kwargs
@@ -111,6 +114,10 @@ def get_figure_paths(self, handle):
         for fmt in self.figure_formats:
             yield self.figure_folder / (handle + '.' + fmt)
 
+    def get_table_paths(self, handle):
+        for fmt in self.table_formats:
+            yield self.table_folder / (handle + '.' + fmt)
+
     @classmethod
     def ns_dump_description(cls):
         return dict(
diff --git a/src/reportengine/table.py b/src/reportengine/table.py
index c5ec6b8..18eb3a1 100644
--- a/src/reportengine/table.py
+++ b/src/reportengine/table.py
@@ -57,17 +57,46 @@ def as_markdown(self):
         res = re.sub('\n\s+', '\n', res)
         return res
 
-
-
-def prepare_path(*, spec, namespace,environment, **kwargs):
-    name = spec_to_nice_name(namespace, spec)
-    path = environment.table_folder / (name + '.csv')
-    return {'path': path}
-
-def savetable(df, path):
+def str_columns(df):
+    log.debug("Changing column types to str")
+    cols = df.columns
+    if isinstance(cols, pd.MultiIndex):
+        for i in range(cols.nlevels):
+            str_col = cols.levels[i].astype(str)
+            # Could use inplace but it's
+            # going to bedeprecated
+            cols = cols.set_levels(str_col, i)
+    else:
+        cols = cols.astype(str)
+    df.columns = cols
+    return df
+
+def prepare_path(*, spec, namespace, environment, **kwargs):
+    paths = environment.get_table_paths(spec_to_nice_name(namespace, spec))
+    return {'paths': list(paths)}
+
+def savetable(df, paths):
     """Final action to save figures, with a nice filename"""
-    log.debug("Writing table %s" % path)
-    df.to_csv(str(path), sep='\t', na_rep='nan')
+    for path in paths:
+        log.debug("Writing table %s" % path)
+        format = path.suffix[1:]
+        if format == "parquet": # Default to parquet format
+            try:
+                df.to_parquet(str(path))
+            except ValueError as e:
+                # Need to change the type of each level to str
+                raise ValueError(
+                    "To save a table in parquet format the column entries must all be of type str. "
+                    "Consider using the helper function reportengine.table.str_columns before passing the "
+                    "dataframe to the savetable function."
+                    ) from e
+        elif format == "csv":
+            df.to_csv(str(path), sep='\t', na_rep='nan')
+        else:
+            raise NotImplementedError(
+                f"Unrecognised format {format}",
+                "choose one of parquet or csv"
+            )
     return Table.fromdf(df, path=path)
 
 def savetablelist(dfs, path):