ISPA projecting weaker sales for this year
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 20, 2008
Alexandria, Va. — The International Sleep Products Assn.'s latest bedding forecast takes a bearish turn on business prospects for this year. It calls for a 3% decline in unit shipments of mattresses in 2008, with a modest 1% gain in the dollar value of mattress shipments.
But ISPA predicts a much stronger 2009. The trade association's forecast for next year envisions a 4% gain in mattress unit shipments and a hefty 7.5% increase in the dollar value of mattress shipments.
If that growth materializes next year, it will end what ISPA expects to be a three-year slide in unit shipments.
ISPA's latest look at business prospects in 2008, issued in March, is more pessimistic than Furniture/Today's consensus bedding forecast for 2008, issued in December. F/T called for a 0.6% decline in bedding units in 2008 and a 2.8% increase in dollars.
Mattress shipments slumped in December and some bedding producers are predicting sales declines in the first quarter of 2008. That poor climate has soured forecasters' views about business this year.
The wave of bad bedding news was enough to convince the ISPA Forecast Panel, composed of bedding producers, to sharply revise their forecasts for 2008 downward. Last October, the panel had predicted 2% growth in mattress units for 2008 and dollar growth of 5.1%.
ISPA offered this commentary on its current outlook: "Mattress shipments tumbled in December, capping off a fair-to-middling year. With the largest 12-month fall off in recent memory, the dollar value of shipments posted barely positive growth of 1.4% for the year, while unit shipments declined by 2.1%.
"This weakness in December will carry forward and be compounded by the continuing housing crisis, tightening credit markets, and consumer caution, especially during the first half of the year."
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ISPA forecasts 3% decline in units for 2008
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