Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
AHFA to Track Quarterly Shipments
June 30,
2014 by in Industry 
The American Home Furnishings Alliance has partnered with Association Research Inc. to produce a new survey tracking quarterly shipments of home furnishings produced in the U.S.
The association will send out invitations for companies to participate in the new survey.
Association Research, Gaithersburg, Md., serves hundreds of associations by developing and conducting surveys to produce industry-specific statistics and economic research. Data from these surveys is used by companies within the targeted industry to gauge performance results, as well as by analysts from outside the industry, who use results to develop forecasting.
As a third-party fiduciary, Association Research is able to provide complete confidentiality to survey participants. No outside parties, including AHFA, will ever have access to individual company data.
“Domestic production has become fragmented, making it more difficult to track,” said Andy Counts, CEO of AHFA, which represents both domestic producers and importers, as well as many companies that do both.
“For many years a survey of leading domestic companies produced statistics that were representative and reliable," Counts said. "Now the survey needs to be broader, reaching a greater number of smaller companies who, together, are responsible for a much higher percentage of today’s domestic production.”
“Our industry needs these numbers from the most reliable sources possible,” said Jerry Epperson, whose firm, Mann, Armistead & Epperson, Ltd., specializes in the furniture sector and produces among the most comprehensive industry statistical profiles available. He supports the new, expanded survey base and encourages all companies that receive an invitation from AHFA to participate.
“The industry needs this combined information to keep tabs on our changes over time,” Epperson notes. “If you receive an invitation, please participate.”