by May shipments fell 13% from May 2022
HIGH POINT — New furniture orders rose 15% year over year in May, reversing 23 months of year-over-year declines tracked by Smith Leonard’s Furniture Insights report.
Meanwhile, shipments continued their ongoing decline, a sign that it could take some time to reverse this trend, even if orders continue to rise.
New orders for the month of May were $2.9 billion, up 15% from the $1.98 billion reported in May 2022. According to Smith Leonard, new orders were up for 64% of survey participants. It noted that based on the survey responses, some large dealers placed large orders to be shipped over a period of time, indicating that there could be a decline in June numbers.
Year to date, orders were still down 13% from the same period in 2022 and were down for 78% of participants.
May orders were up 19.2% compared to the $1.92 billion reported in April.
Furniture shipments totaled $2.4 billion in May, down 18% from the $2.96 billion for May 2022, down for 71% of survey participants. Year-to-date furniture shipments totaled $12.43 billion, down 15% from the $14.54 billion reported in the first five months of 2022, down for 63% of survey participants.
Compared to April, May shipments were up slightly, from $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion in May.
The report went on to note that backlogs fell from $7.47 billion in May 2022 to $2.87 billion in May 2023. Compared to April, they declined only slightly, from $2.93 billion to $2.87 billion.
The decline in backlogs occurred as shipments were slightly more than the dollar amount of new orders, the report noted.
Other highlights of the report were as follows:
+ Receivables rose 2% in May over April as shipments were also up over April. Compared to May 2022, receivables were down 30% as shipments were only off 18%.
+ Inventories were down 23% from May 2022 and were down 5% from April. The double-digit decline compared to a 12% decline reported last month. “From what we are hearing, and considering price increases, it appears that inventory levels at the manufacturers and distributors are at least somewhat in line with current business conditions.”
+ The number of factory and warehouse workers was down 9% from last May, which the report said was similar to last month. The number also fell 1% from April.
+ Payrolls were down 13% from May and 8% year to date, the report noted. “Once again, it appears that the declines in payrolls and numbers of employees is being handled through attrition.”
