Epperson has shared his authoritative “State of the Industry” outlook with Market visitors for more than four decades. Unable to attend this June due to a spine fracture “which is healing nicely,” he enjoyed sharing the statistics that fuel his optimism for the next several years. “Last year was an unprecedented disaster with a global pandemic, contentious election, extreme unemployment, recession, shut-downs, and logistics disruptions,” he said. “Today, thankfully, we’re looking at everything opening up with vaccination availability, employment gains, stock market records, stable interest rates, booming housing, and retail strength.”
Ken Smith, author of the Furniture Insights® newsletter, concurred with Epperson’s upbeat view in his May issue. “According to our latest survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors, new orders in March 2021 were up 96% over March 2020. Since the pandemic really began to be felt in March 2020, part of the increase was due to many businesses being shut down for a while in March. So, we compared March 2021 to March 2019 and saw that orders were up 40% in that comparison. Our perception that business has really been good showed up in those results.”
Both Epperson and Smith cited foam and worker shortages and higher steel, lumber, and shipping prices as concerns for their clients. “Everyone is coping with disruptions. We weren’t sure that with 80% of the top retailers going to Pre-Market, many would come back in June,” said Smith. “But many did. It was much better attended than anticipated. There weren’t any tire kickers. Buyers were looking for product. Even with longer lead times, they still need to place orders at Market so they would be in line to get orders within the new 12 to 25 week delivery times. We didn’t have our usual 50+ scheduled appointments, but we talked informally with many CEOs in their showrooms. Their stories were identical, and I think they took small comfort in knowing their competitors were in the same boat.”