Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Smith Leonard: Furniture Orders Drop 5% in February
May 2,
2019 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
After unexpected increases in January, new orders fell 5% in February from February 2018, according to a report by Smith Leonard accounting and consulting firm. This decline reduced year-to-date new orders to an increase of 1% over the first two months of last year.
The firm’s monthly survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors showed new orders declined for approximately 56% of the participants for the month.
The survey also shows, shipments in February 2019 were down 3% over February 2018 with year-to-date shipments up 5 % ahead of last year with one-half of participants reporting increases.
Backlogs dropped from a 9% increase reported last month to a 7% increase in February. Backlogs were about even with January levels as orders and shipments in dollars were about the same.
Receivable levels remained in line with year to date shipments, while inventory levels fell 3% from January.