U.S. furniture factory orders, shipments down 17% in March

Best month-to-month comparison since September 2008

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, June 2, 2009

HIGH POINT — U.S. residential furniture factory orders and shipments in March were down 17% from the same month last year — which was the best comparison since September, according to Smith Leonard.

Furniture factory orders, shipments in March 2009

"While nothing to get too excited about, at least the decline fell below the 20-plus percentage (declines) we have been reporting," Ken Smith, managing director of the accounting and consulting firm, wrote in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter.

For the first quarter of the year, orders and shipments were both down 21% from the same period in 2008. This was a slight improvement from last year's fourth quarter, when orders were down 26% from a year earlier.

Smith said shipments in March were up 10% from February and the month "felt" better, although that was partly because March had more shipping days.

He also noted that he still believes that the "blow out" of inventories by furniture sources is about over. "This should mean that, hopefully, retailers will begin buying more products at normal prices. While there may still be some discounting, at least we should not have to give the 50% to 80% discounts we have heard about."

Smith added, "We continue to hear that the economy should start to pick up somewhat or at least bottom out in the third quarter. We know that the furniture industry typically lags other products, so it may be the fourth quarter of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010 before we see much improvement."