Office Furniture Recovery Predicted To Be Slow

Posted by MCC on August 24th, 2010 at 07:00am

An updated outlook for the office furniture industry predicts that the industry should see modest growth rates for the remainder of this year. However, those increases will still result in flat total sales for the year. But, the updated outlook also predicts that the industry will realize solid growth next year.

The 2009 downturn that saw shipments decline by almost 30 percent is still causing a slow recovery for the office furniture idustry. The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association released the updated outlook with new predictions from the ones released three months ago. A o.5 percent decline in shipments in North America for this year is predicted. In May, BIFMA released a outlook that estimated a 5.1 percent decline.

A second quarter that was better than expected combined with the predicted 2 percent growth during the third and fourth quarters, has led to the update in th eoutlook. After a decline of 11 percent in shipments during the first quarter, shipments increased 3.6 during the period from April to June.

Second quarter orders for the spring increased 13 percent over the totals for 2009. That increase is the basis for the predicted solid base in increased shipment for the third quarter. Although, the predictions shine a little hope on the industry, no one can be sure what the economy is going to do.

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