GOODYEAR, Ariz. - Custom residential furniture maker Lorts will raise prices on all incoming orders by 3 percent. The hike will begin April 12.

Lorts CEO Michelle Lorts explained the increase in an email to customers.

“As we all know the past year has been challenging … from our collective health concern, to adjustments in business approach. Thankfully, this has taught us that not only are we resilient, but we are determined, and ultimately we are all in this together,” she wrote. “That being said, we are happy that our industry is on an upswing, but it also means that we are dealing with price increases from our suppliers due to high demand, weather struggles, and manpower shortages. We are seeing surcharges as high as 25% on many of our most important finishing supplies. Our hope is that this is a temporary issue and will return to normal shortly.

“We at Lorts want to thank you for your continued partnership,” she continued. “We hope that you and yours are healthy and safe. We consider it an honor to provide you with what we believe to be the very best product in the industry.”

Fellow furniture maker High Point Furniture Industries also recently made the decision to raise prices. Their increase is 6 percent beginning May 1.

"As our economy recovers, we are faced with several other unexpected challenges in our supply chain," HFPI wrote in a letter to its customers. "The worldwide demand has increased exponentially for many raw materials affecting most wood and steel products. Weather events have also created serious shortages in petroleum-based products."

"Steel costs have risen 25 percent, wood products are up 12-15 percent, foam has increased 40 percent, and if that's not enough, transportation costs are up over 25 percent," the letter reads.

The issue of rising costs comes at an unfortunate time for HFPI and other furniture makers - many of whom have been seeing a sharp increase in demand. Residential furniture orders saw a 27 percent rise in December 2020 from the same month in 2019, and a 15 percent increase for entire year of 2020 over 2019.