Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Smith Leonard: Furniture orders Down 3% in March
May 31,
2019 by Laurie Northington in Economic News, Industry 
As somewhat expected, new orders dropped 3% in March from March 2018, according to a report by Smith Leonard accounting and consulting firm. This decline reduced year-to-date new orders to a flat rate for the full first quarter.
The firm’s monthly survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors showed new orders increased for only 42% of the participants for the month.
The survey also shows shipments in March 2019 were down 1% over March 2018 with year-to-date shipments up 3% ahead of last year.
Backlogs remained steady from February as the dollar amount of orders was about the same as the dollar amounts shipped. Backlogs remained 4% ahead of March 2018.
Receivable levels are somewhat out of line considering shipment levels, up 9%. Inventory levels were down 1% from February but remained 6% over March 2018.