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From Home Furnishing Business

September Furniture Orders Up 8 Percent

December 2, 2014  by in Economic News, Industry   

High Point accounting and consulting firm Smith Leonard conducts the monthly survey of residential furniture vendors.

September orders were up 12 percent over August levels. Year-to-date new orders were 5 percent ahead of 2013; and are up for almost 72 percent of survey participants, up from 69 percent for the last two months.
 
Shipments rose 6 percent in September from September 2013 levels, and were up 5 percent over August. Year-to-date shipments were 6 percent higher than the same period a year ago, when they were 4 percent higher than year-to-date 2012.

Backlogs rose 4 percent from August; and 3 percent from September 2013. Last month, backlogs were 3 percent higher than August 2013 as well.

September receivable levels were about even with August in spite of the 5 percent increase in shipments; and 4 percent higher than September 2013, in line with the 6 percent increase in shipments.

"From what we are hearing, receivables seem to be in pretty good shape," said Smith Leonard Managing Partner Ken Smith. 
 
September inventories rose 2 percent from August levels, and were 8 percent ahead of September 2013. That's after a 6 percent increase last month.

"While not totally out of line with current business, they have been a bit higher in recent months," Smith said.

Factory and warehouse payrolls rose 6 percent from September 2013, up from a 1 percent increase reported last month. Year-to-date, payrolls remained 5 percent ahead of the same period a year ago so the monthly numbers may be affected by some timing issues.

"Certainly, the 5 percent year-to-date increase seems in line with current business conditions," Smith said.
 
The number of factory and warehouse employees was up 2 percent over September 2013 and fell 1 percent from August. In August, the number of employees was up 4 percent over August 2013.

Smith noted in summary that GNP improved, and that housing continued to improve for both existing and new home sales in most areas of the country.

"Retail sales improved, while not up substantially for furniture and home furnishings stores, still positive. Inflation remained in check especially with falling energy prices," Smith said. "The employment picture continues to improve though maybe not as much as we would like, but at least improving.

"The October market seemed very good and it appears that the weeks that have followed have proved that the market was a good one. While we know that some of the growth by certain companies may have come at the expense of others, most those we talk to feel that overall business is pretty good. After reviewing the results of our survey and all of the national reports, other than the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence survey, it seems that we can be relatively optimistic about moving into 2015.  Hopefully, the Conference Board report was a result of a bad day to call consumers. The University of Michigan report was clearly optimistic … We know how important consumer confidence is to our industry, so for now we will choose to believe that report."