U.S. residential furniture factory orders down 17% in May

Orders and shipments both down 21% for first five months

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, August 3, 2009

Factory orders, shipments in May 2009

HIGH POINT — U.S. residential furniture factory orders in May were down 17% from a year earlier, an improvement from April and probably a reflection that some orders were delayed until May, according to Smith Leonard.

The accounting and consulting firm had said earlier that some orders may have been delayed because of the late date of this year's High Point Market, which ended April 30.

"If we add April and May orders for both years, the decline was 22%, which is in line with the previous months," Ken Smith, managing partner of Smith Leonard, said in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter.

Factory shipments in May were down 19% from the same month in 2008.

For the first five months of the year, orders and shipments were both down 21% from the same period last year, according to Smith Leonard's factory survey.

Smith said he had heard "some good news" in June, but saw no consistent momentum. "It does seem to feel like maybe we are beginning to see the bottom, yet we are not totally ready to call that. Consumer confidence sliding two months in a row is not helping matters, especially as it relates to the industry," he said.