According to the latest survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors from Smith Leonard, new orders were 5 percent lower in July 2016 than July 2015. July 2015 orders were 4 percent higher than July 2014. The decline in July brought the year-to-date results to basically flat with the first 7 months of 2015.

Some 80 percent of the participants reported declines in orders in July with approximately 61 percent reporting declines year-to-date.

Shipments in July were down 9 percent from July 2015 with 80 percent of the participants reporting declines. The decline from June 2016 shipments was due primarily to the vacation week taken in July by most companies.

Year-to-date, shipments were down 1 percent from 2015. Some 61 percent of participants reported declines in shipments.

Backlogs were down 2 percent from July 2015 and flat with June. Backlogs in July 2015 were up 9 percent over July 2014.

Receivables were down 8 percent, in line with the decline in shipments. Inventories were up 2 percent from June and were 2 percent higher than July 2015. While a bit high, it was probably difficult to react too quickly to the poor July results.

The factory and warehouse payrolls were in line with the lower shipment levels and the number of employees, up 1 percent, was reasonable and consistent with recent results.

(Source: woodworkingnetwork.com  Author: Michaelle Bradford)