Monthly Furniture Insights Report From Smith Leonard

New Orders

According to your latest survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors, February 2021 new orders were 34% greater than February 2020 orders continuing the string of strong double-digit growth in new orders, today up 9 months in a row. January’s latest orders were up 27%. New orders had been up for 94% of the participants.

For the first 8 weeks of the entire year, new orders were up 31% over the same 8 weeks of 2020. Year to date, brand-new orders had been up for 88% of the participants. We aren't sure what we will have for the next two months as March 2020 was whenever we first saw the fall off of business as a result of onset of the pandemic. So, another few months will probably show some drastic variations, that will have a while for the numbers to receive sorted out.

Shipments and Backlogs

Shipments in February 2021 were up 18% in comparison to February 2020, seeing that shipments finally started showing some benefits from the major increases in orders. Shipments were up for a few 81% of the participants in February.

For the two months ended February, shipments were now up 13% over this past year. Shipments year to date had been up for 66% of the participants. Hence finally, you will see cash coming in for March and April rather than just paper orders.

Backlogs increased again, upgrading 5% from January and reaching an increase of 184% over this past year. The backlog levels continue to create problems at retail as customers are not happy having to hang on on product. The main backlog issue possesses been designed in both upholstery and case goods. Having less availability of foam for upholstery has been the primary cause in addition to the insufficient labor supply. Case goods have been affected by factory issues in Asia along with all sorts of problems with the flow of goods on the water.

Receivables and Inventories

As would be expected with the upsurge in shipments, receivable levels increased from February of last year. Receivables had been up 9% over this past year and up 1% from January. February shipments were up 2% from January and up 18% over February 2020 so that it appears that receivables happen to be in good shape.

Inventories increased 4% from January and were up 15% from last year. This increase is obviously in line with the upsurge in orders and may possibly be even bigger if the flow of goods had been better and extra employees could be found for the manufacturers.

Factory and Warehouse Employees and Payroll

The quantity of factory and warehouse employees was down 2% from February 2020 but up 1% from January. The quantity of employees was down 3% in January from January 2020.

Factory and warehouse payrolls were up 3% from last February and up 2% year to date. Much of that increase was because of some pay increases together with some extra hours.