New orders for furniture remained strong in May, growing 47% compared with the same month last year, according to the latest Furniture Insights survey of residential manufacturers and distributors from accounting and consulting firm Smith Leonard.
“The results of our latest survey continue to show year over year strong growth as the comparisons are starting to reflect the beginnings of business coming back beginning in May 2020,” said Smith Leonard Partner Ken Smith in the report, noting 91% of surveyed companies logged order increases in May. “Year to date, new orders were up 67% over the first five months of 2020. Going back to more normal times, we compared the new orders year to date for 2021 to that of 2019. That comparison showed that new orders were up approximately 36% over that period, the same as we reported last month for the April year to date results. So, these results really seem to show that business has been as good as it seems.”
May shipments rose 64% compared with May 2020 as vendors kept ramping up and began shipping from backlogs. “This increase brought the year-to-date results to an increase of 43%,” Smith said. “The year-to-date results showed an increase of 17% over year-to-date 2019 results.”
“Most manufacturers are showing delivery dates of about three months to as much as six months from what we have heard,” Smith noted. “Distributors are having the same issues as many of the Asian companies have been shut down or slowed due to the COVID-19 as well.”
Receivable levels were in line with shipments, increasing 50% from May last year. Smith pointed out that with current backlog levels, “most credit departments are making sure customers are current with older orders before taking any new orders.”
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