Industry bouncing back after a depressing 2009
Jerry Epperson, An Insider’s View -- Furniture Today, May 10, 2010
The final numbers are in and, you guessed it, furniture and mattress sales declined in 2009.
The government says total consumer expenditures on furniture and mattresses fell 7.5% for the year and declined 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Our numbers show the declines were at least twice that rate, but they have more employees than we do and a somewhat larger budget.
Here is another shock: Every category declined for the year. Wood furniture, domestic and imported — we’re talking about wholesale value for the rest of these statistics — fell a massive, unprecedented 22% and 22.3% respectively in 2009. Upholstery did better, if you call a 14.6% decline in domestic shipments and a 12.7% decline in imports “better.” Metal furniture imports declined 20.6% and domestic shipments fell 19.5%.
Mattress shipments, both domestic and imports, declined about 9%. Crown the winner! Only 9% down.
All of the foreign sources of wood furniture showed declines except the ninth largest source, Poland, which showed a modest gain. The largest wood source, China, was off 25.2% and Vietnam fell 4.2% for the year.
In upholstery, China had a decline of 6.8%, while Mexico declined 25% for the year but was up 10% in the fourth quarter.
While every significant number declined for the 2009 year, the fourth quarter had some very encouraging positive comparisons with the 2008 fourth quarter.
For example domestic mattress sales grew 9% in the quarter and the small imported mattress category increased 19%, with a huge increase from China.
Upholstery did better in the fourth quarter as well. While domestic declined a modest 3.2%, imports grew 3.7% with a 7.8% increase from China. Imported fabric cut-and-sewn covers showed a nice gain in the fourth quarter as well, up 19.5%.
Wood furniture, however, continued to drop in the December quarter. Domestic wood furniture declined 9.3%, which looks good compared to an 18.9% drop in wood imports, lead by a 20.9% decline in shipments from China and a 2% decline in wood furniture from Vietnam.
Also very encouraging recently has been the good sales and earnings from an array of public companies like: La-Z-Boy, with upholstery sales up 17% in its January quarter; upholstery manufacturer American Furniture, part of Compass Diversified, had sales up 7% in its December quarter; Culp had a total sales gain of 21% in its January quarter with a 39% increase in upholstery fabric sales; Select Comfort had same-store sales up 23% in its December quarter; Havertys’ same-store sales grew 4% in its fourth quarter; Aaron’s fourth-quarter revenues rose 10%; and Natuzzi expects 2010 sales to grow 17%. And all the companies’ recent earnings grew strongly, too.
Good news in the home furnishings industry? Whoopee!
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Congratulate yourself for surviving last year
Apr 13, 2009 -
June quarter statistics: How low did we go?
Sep 28, 2008
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