September Furniture Orders up Double Digits

December 1, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in economic news on December 2, 2011

New retailer orders for furniture rose 12 percent in September compared with the prior year, per the Furniture Insights survey of furniture makers and distributors.

High Point accounting and consulting firm Smith Leonard conducts the monthly survey, which showed new orders 13 percent above August 2011, and 6 percent ahead of the first nine months of last year.

"The results for September were somewhat surprising," said Smith Leonard Managing Partner Ken Smith in the survey report. "While we had heard that September was somewhat better than expected a month before the High Point Market, we were a bit surprised to see the double digit increase. For the month, some 60 percent of the participants reported increased orders, up slightly from the August results. September 2010 orders were 3 percent higher than September 2009."

Smith noted that some vendors introduced price increases, which has impacted the percentage increase in orders.
 
September shipments for September were 6 percent higher than September 2010, 6 percent higher than August. Year-to-date shipments are 3 percent ahead of last year.

Backlogs rose 1 percent from August as orders slightly exceeded shipments for the month. Backlogs were 13 percent higher than backlogs in September 2010 when they were 7 percent higher than September 2009. In August, backlogs were 8 percent higher than August 2010.
 
September receivables rose 4 percent from August levels, in line with the 6 percent increase in shipments, but fell 2 percent from September 2010 despite a year-to-date 3 percent increase in shipments. This followed a 3 percent decline comparing August to August last month.

"It appears the credit personnel are watching their accounts closely," Smith observed.

Inventories were up 2 percent in September over September 2010, the same a in August; and in line with expectations. 
 
Furniture factory and warehouse employment in September was even with August 2011 and down 1 percent from September 2010. Factory and warehouse payrolls rose 8 percent from August and were 10 percent higher than September 2010. This followed a 6 percent increase reported last month.

"It appears that these employees are getting more hours this year than last since the number of employees is relatively flat compared to last year," Smith said.

In summary, Smith said that while the double-digit order increase in September reflects some price increases, that's not the whole story since most of those increases were in the 3 to 5 percent range.

"We had heard that September was a pretty good month for many (still only 60 percent reported increases), which was a bit surprising going into the High Point Market," he said. "And as we noted last month, the market seemed to be one of the best in several years. October results may be affected by timing of market orders, so we will see.

"On the other hand, since market, there seems to have been a bit of a lull at retail, at least from a new orders standpoint, from what we are hearing. Overall though, the results the last couple of months have been encouraging. Clearly everyone has not participated but almost 16 percent of our participants are only off less than 1 percent to 5 percent. So some 76 percent of the participants are either off less than 5 percent or up--some very nicely."

Smith said that negative news from the presidential race, economic troubles in Europe and unrest in the Middle East will negatively affect consumer moods.

"That being said, consumers are resilient and to some degree have learned to expect disappointments from the politicians. So we say, take good care of the customers that are buying, both at the retail and wholesale levels," he added. "In these times, it is more important than ever to have good trading partners."