Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Smith Leonard: Furniture Orders up 47% in May, 36% from 2019
August 1,
2021 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
New orders in May were up 47% over May 2020. The May 2020 results were just the beginning of a somewhat comeback, according to a report by Smith Leonard accounting and consulting firm.
The firm’s monthly survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors also showed that year-to-date, results remained very strong with orders up 67% over the first five months of 2020. Orders were up for 97% of the participants year to date.
Comparing 2021 year-to-date results with the 2019 survey, showed new orders up 36% over the first 5 months of 2019. These results show that business really has continued to be positive since the beginning of the comeback from the basic shutdown of the economy in the March/April 2020 time frame.
Shipments were up 64% in May 2021 compared to May 2020. Compared to the first five months of 2019, shipments were up 17% in 2021. Shipments were up for 97% of the participants year-to-date.
New orders continued to exceed shipments, so backlogs increased again in May, up 3% from April and reaching an increase of 214% over May 2020. There have been continued issues with lack of labor and acquiring raw materials, primarily foam for upholstery, as well as other raw material shortages. Also, issues with imports due to labor and other problems in countries where factories are not back up and running are keeping companies from being able to get backlogs down. Adding to those are problems with freight, whether it be lack of containers, port delays, or even trucking issues in the states. We see that the whole industry is just not able to keep up with the current demands for goods at the retail level.