Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Smith Leonard: Furniture Orders Up 27% in January
April 1,
2021 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
New orders in January were up 27% over January 2020, according to report by Smith Leonard accounting and consulting firm. This marked the 8th straight month that orders were higher than the previous year.
The firm’s monthly survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors showed new order increases for 77% of the participants for the month and some are experiencing very large double digit growth.
Shipments in January were only up 7% over January 2020 as shipments are continually hampered by shortages of supplies, primarily foam, and people for upholstery companies and various shipping and freight issues for case goods folks, as well as people and other supply issues for many of the domestic manufacturers.
Orders exceeded shipments, so backlogs increased again in January, but receivable levels seem to be in line. The lack of factory and warehouse workers remains an issue. Some blame lack of trained employees and some blame some of the government funds being passed out which doesn’t incentivize some to want to work.