Production of office and contract furnitureis forecast to grow in 2014, followed by a larger gain in 2015, according tothe Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Assn.

Lookingat 2013, BIFMA estimated that the value of the U.S. office furniture market andoverall consumption was $11.540 billion, an increase of 2.2 percent. U.S.production reached $9.355 billion in 2013, an increase of 0.9 percent. Inaddition, imports totaled $2.902 billion, and exports were $717 million.

Theforecast for the U.S. office furniture market for 2014 is positive. The HIS GlobalInsight Industry model forecasts consumption to increase 4.2 percent to $12billion, and to increase again by 12.1 percent to $13.5 billion in 2015. U.S.production, meanwhile, is also forecast to increase 2.8 percent in 2014 to $9.6billion, and by 10.4 percent to $10.6 billion in 2014.

The BIFMA forecast of the U.S.office furniture market, the HIS Global Insight industry forecast model, isadjusted to focus on the value of the U.S. office furniture market defined asconsumption rather than historical shipments, or production.

BIFMA also reported that seatingwas the largest product category (29 percent) in terms of share of annual U.S. production,followed by systems (27 percent), files (11 percent), casegoods (11 percent),tables (11 percent) and storage (5 percent).

Theoverall FDM 300 group of companies recorded a second year in a row of salesgains in 2013. We calculated annual sales for this group of 300 companies to be$39.630 billion in 2013, an increase of 5.3 percent over sales reported andestimated for the year 2012. The sales increases in 2012 and 2013 come afterfive consecutive years of declines.

Ayear ago, we estimated sales for this group of 300 companies in the UnitedStates and Canada to be $37.632 in 2012.That was an increase of 4 percentover sales for this group in 2011, which reached $36.167 billion.

The FDM 300 is a group of the 300 largest cabinet,furniture, millwork, store fixture, office/contract and component producers inNorth America. Additional information can be found at www.cabinetmakerfdm.com by clicking onthe FDM 300 tab or searching for a specific company.

Ten largest companies

Steelcase was the largest company in thegroup. Here are the ten largest producers in 2013:

1.Steelcase Inc. The largest company in the FDM 300 this year reported a solid increasein sales for its 2013 fiscal year, more than $100 million over the previousyear. Total sales were $2.868 billion. In May of this year, Steelcase rebrandedits healthcare division from Nurture by Steelcase to Steelcase Health. Thecompany’s education business is being rebranded from Steelcase EducationSolutions to Steelcase Education. The company announced that its High Point,North Carolina, manufacturing location will close within the next two years.

2.Herman Miller. Sales for 2013 were $1.774.9 billion. In March, the companyannounced that third quarter sales had increased 7.7 percent over the samequarter a year earlier.

3.HNI Corp. FDM 300 reported sales number of $1.69 billion, based on thirdquarter sales for the office furniture segment. Sales were up slightly. Artco-Bell,Midwest Folding and LSI Corp. divisions were added in 2012. (Final sales figurefor 2013 was $1.685 million.)

4.Haworth reported annual sales of $1.41 billion for its most recent fiscal year,an increase of 7 percent. Earlier, Haworth sold Group Lacasse, a St. Pie, Quebec, office furniture manufacturer, toan independent investment group.

5. Knoll Inc. Here, $840 millionwas our estimate for 2013, based on third quarter 2013 sales, which were slightlylower. (Final sales number was $862.6 million.)

6. KI. Sales were $650 million,our estimate for the Green Bay office and contract manufacturer.

7. Global Group. The $650 millionfigure was our estimate.

8. Kimball. Total of $500.1million represented fiscal 2013 sales for the furniture segment. A new Virginiaupholstery operation started up in 2013. In January 2014, the company announcedthat it will spin off its electronic manufacturing services business unit.

 9. Teknion. The $500 million figure is ourestimate.

 10. OFS Brands Inc. The $240 million numberwas repeated from 2012, since we had no new information.