February furniture orders 13% higher than 2009

New residential furniture orders were 13 percent higher in February 2010 than 2009, according to Smith Leonard’s Furniture Insights, a monthly survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors.
This marked the fourth month in a row that orders were up over the previous year’s same month comparison. (October was flat, November up 10 percent, December up 12 percent and January up 4 percent.) Admittedly, all of these months were comparing to poor results in the previous year. But the good news is that we seem to have stopped the downward flow.
Shipments in February were 4 percent higher than February 2009. January shipments were 6 percent higher than January 2009, resulting in the year-to-date shipments up 5 percent over the same two months of last year. This was the third month in a row that shipments were up over the same period a year ago.

Nov. '09 furniture orders increase over Nov. '08

The latest Furniture Insights study from Smith Leonard shows new orders for November 2009 increased 10 percent over new orders in November 2008. Also, 51 percent of participants reported increased orders in November, up from 41 percent in October, 33 percent in September and 20 percent in August.
Year-to-date, new orders were down 14 percent compared to the same period a year ago, down from 16 percent last month. Last year at this time, new orders were down 13 percent year-to-date. Some 89 percent of participants have reported lower orders compared to the same, eleven-month period last year.
The study said while many companies are still hurting, most have made adjustments to current volume levels.

Furniture Buying Index rises to 57

The Furniture Buying Index rose two points this month to 57, reaching the same level as July’s reading.
Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, said, “Although the Furniture Buying Index rose slightly this month, it is well below the 70 point level retailers need to see strong traffic in their stores.”