U.S.-made furniture regains market share
Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 28, 2011
At the October High Point Market, a lot was said and written about "Made in America." There was even a nice display in Suites at Market Square. But can American-made furniture be competitive? According to the mos
Jerry Epperson An insider’s view
t recent import numbers, American-made furniture is staging a comeback. Got a flag? Wave it.
Most would agree that wood furniture has been the most challenged. More than half of all the wood residential furniture sold in this country has been imported since 2003, and the percent imported has grown every year since then.
But for the first half of 2011, domestic wood shipments grew 6% and imported wood furniture declined an insignificant 0.1%. The largest source of wood imports, China, declined 1.4% and among the larger source nations, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand all experienced declines. Wood imports from Vietnam grew 2.5%, however.
According to our way of calculating, wood furniture imports were 68% of all wood furniture sold in the first half of 2011, down from 69.1% in the first half of 2010.
In upholstery, the trend was even more evident. U.S.-manufactured upholstered furniture grew 4.3% in the first 6 months of this year, while imports declined 4.9%. China, bringing in 74% of all upholstery imports, declined 5% but others declined as well, including Vietnam, Mexico, Italy and Malaysia. Canada had an increase.
Imported upholstered furniture was 36.3% of all upholstery sold in the U.S. in the first half of this year, down from 38.3% in the first half of 2010. Recently, we have seen some importers like Schnadig and Four Hands source at least a portion of their upholstered furniture in the U.S., so perhaps a more perceptible shift is occurring.
In mattresses, where the market penetration by imports is dramatically less, the share of the U.S. market held by imports grew to 5.1% in the first half of 2011, up from 4.9% in 2010. The largest source countries for mattresses in order of size are China, Mexico and Canada.
So, is this the beginning of a long-term trend with domestic sources recovering a larger share? The issues vary from country to country, but even the growing popularity of a cover like bonded leather, which is less labor-intensive to use than leather hides, might allow U.S. companies to take back share from Asia.
Some of our largest companies are taking a more North American posture with Ethan Allen, La-Z-Boy and Furniture Brands having cut and sew factories in Mexico.
Today, we have some stores that focus exclusively on "Made in America" furniture. Wonder if the furniture scene in Asia has "Made in China" stores?
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