Furniture Manufacturing

Furniture Manufacturing

Brief Excerpt from Industry Overview Chapter:

Companies in this industry manufacture household, office, and institutional furniture and related products, including mattresses. Major companies include Heritage Home Group, Herman Miller, HNI, La-Z-Boy, Leggett & Platt, Steelcase, and Tempur Sealy (all based in the US), along with Hunter Douglas and IKEA (both in the Netherlands), Natuzzi (Italy), Okamura Corporation (Japan), and Samson Holding (China).

Worldwide, furniture sales total about $480 billion annually, according to CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies. Top countries for furniture manufacturing include China, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The European Union is the largest consumer of furniture goods, followed by the NAFTA region (primarily the US and Canada) and Asia (primarily China and Japan).

The US furniture manufacturing industry includes about 15,700 companies with annual revenue of about $70 billion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

The volume of home furniture sold depends heavily on the level of home sales, while office furniture sales depend on the health of the US economy overall. The profitability of individual companies is closely linked to volume, since many costs are fixed. Large companies enjoy economies of scale in purchasing. Small companies can compete effectively if they produce specialty items or high-quality workmanship that can sell for a premium price. Some segments, such as mattress manufacturing and office furniture manufacturing, are highly concentrated, but the US industry as a whole is fragmented: the largest 50 companies generate about 40% of revenue.

Imports, primarily from China, account for about one-third of furniture...