Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Smith Leonard: Furniture Orders Up 6% in July
October 1,
2019 by Laurie Northington in Economic News, Industry 
After a string of lower orders, new orders in July were up 6% from July 2018, but still down 2% year-to-date, according to a report by the Smith Leonard accounting and consulting firm.
The firm’s monthly survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors showed new orders increased for 53% of the participants for the month. Year-to-date, new orders were still down for 67% of the participants.
The survey also showed shipments in July 2019 were 1% higher than July 2018, while backlogs were up 7% from June bringing the comparison to July 2018 to a 1% increase after being down 5% last month.
Receivables were reasonable as inventories remain a little high at an 8% increase over last year, but that increase continues to fall over the last few months.