Furniture Factory Orders and Shipments up in June 2013
New Furniture Orders Climb 4% in Smith Leonard July Survey

Furniture Factory Orders and Shipments up in June 2013HIGH POINT, NC - Both new orders and shipments in June were up from the same time last year according to Smith Leonard's latest survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors. This is the third consecutive monthly year-to-date increase in both fields.

Year-to-date, new orders remained 4 percent higher than the same period a year ago, though it's a little off from last month's numbers. Approximately 76 percent of the participants reported increased orders year-to-date up from approximately 67 percent reporting last month.

Shipments were also up very nicely in June, rising 8 percent over June 2012. An estimated 72 percent of the participants reported increased shipments over June a year ago.

The increase in shipments in June caused the year-to-date comparison to increase 3 percent, up from 2 percent last month.

"Overall, key indicators for the industry appear fairly positive,"said Smith Leonard's Kenneth Smith. "And, for the most part, the people we have spoken with recently have also been positive, after you get by the fact that it’s not as good as they would like for it to be."

He continued, "While we would love to see more robust growth, at least the growth that is happening is helping many in the industry."

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