Furniture factory orders down 18% in February

Industry's best performance since September 2008

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, May 4, 2009

February U.S. Factory orders

HIGH POINT — U.S. furniture factory orders in February were down 18% from the same month a year earlier, which was the best performance since September.

Year-to-year comparisons were down more than 20% from October through January, the accounting and consulting firm reported.

"The results for February were somewhat in line with expectations. We heard from many that there seemed to be a bit of an improvement in February, albeit very slight," Ken Smith, the firm's managing partner, wrote in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter.

Some 89% of the participants in Smith Leonard's monthly survey of residential furniture factories said orders were down in February, and 65% said they were off 20% or more.

Factory shipments in February were down 20% from a year earlier. For the first two months of 2009, orders and shipments were both down 22% from the comparable period in 2008.

Smith said that most High Point Market exhibitors thought attendance was off, but saw the players they needed to see, and that some retailers had open slots on their floors.

"The mood of those here seemed to be that, while still very cautious, there appears to be some hope that business is starting to show a bit of life out there," he said.