Early market helps boost April furniture factory orders 16%

Orders up 7% for the year

Jay McIntosh -- Furniture Today, June 30, 2011

HIGH POINT — Residential furniture factory orders in April jumped 16% from a year earlier, probably due in part to an earlier High Point Market this year, according to Smith Leonard.

But the accounting and consulting firm said the rise "may not have all been market related," since the month followed a strong March, when orders were up 11%. For the first four months of the year, orders were up 7%.

The earlier market - April 2-7 this year, compared with April 17-22 in 2010 - allowed more orders stemming from market to be recorded during the month, Ken Smith, managing partner of Smith Leonard, wrote in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter.

"Shipments, generally not affected as much by markets specifically, were up 2% over April 2010," Smith said. For the year to date, shipments were up 3%.

About 71% of the participants in Smith Leonard's factory survey said their orders were up for the year to date, while 56% said shipments were up.

"The results for April among most of our participants were good even considering the effect of market timing. Hopefully we will see those orders shipped in May and June as we need to turn orders to cash," Smith said.

He also said that Smith Leonard has just finished its annual survey of operating statistics and has seen improvements in profitability, although not back to historical levels.

"It appears that many companies have adjusted to current volume levels, which hopefully will continue to improve even with modest growth," said Smith.