ISPA: Bedding units decline 4.6% in first quarter
Market conditions ‘among the worst in recent memory’
David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 9, 2008
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — If bedding producers needed any more evidence that their industry is mired in a dismal slump, it just arrived.
The International Sleep Products Assn. has released first-quarter results for 2008 documenting market conditions that “continue to be among the worst in recent memory,” the trade association said.
And in a surprising reversal, specialty sleep bedding suffered double-digit unit and dollar declines in the first quarter, losing ground to innerspring bedding, ISPA reported.
Overall, ISPA reported a 4.6% unit decline in the first quarter and a 6% decline in the dollar value of bedding shipments. The industry’s average unit selling price, which has been on the upswing in most recent quarters, dropped by 1.4%.
The ISPA report painted a particularly gloomy picture for March, with both units and dollars declining by 10.7%. Specialty bedding took a big hit in the month, with specialty mattresses dropping by 16.6% in units and 15.9% in dollars. Innerspring mattress sales were down 8.4% in units and 10.7% in dollars.
All the figures come from a sample of 18 U.S. mattress producers, representing 58.1% of wholesale dollar sales and 45.9% of unit shipments, according to ISPA.
