Industry News
This section provides the very latest office furniture news not only from the UK, but from around the world. Our office furniture news section will keep you abreast with the latest happenings in the office furniture market. If you want to know about bids invitation from major clients, latest profitability and sales figures of leading furniture manufacturers and designer companies, published strategic plans of your competitors, openings, relocations and closure of furniture manufacturing plants, and much more, don’t miss our office furniture news section.
Quarterly office furniture index shows improvement
Thursday 29 July 2010
A quarterly activity index shows improvement in nearly every category, as the office furniture industry begins moving into recovery mode. The index by Michael A. Dunlap & Associates in Holland Michigan registered a 54.93 for July, the best showing since October 2007. It also compares with a 51.51 in April and 50.64 in January. Individual indexes for gross shipments, order backlog, employment, hours worked, capital expenditures and tooling all improved from three months earlier. “I think that there are enough strong indicators from both the July and April surveys that demonstrate that the worst is behind us and that we are finally seeing some solid signs of recovery,” Michael Dunlap said. “We may not see sales levels of more than $12.0 billion for a long time, but I think we will see this industry come out of this recession with some solid growth by the first quarter of 2011.” Dunlap’s index is based on surveys with executives at office furniture makers and their suppliers. The most recent outlook from the Grand Rapids-based Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association projects industrywide shipments to decline 5.1 percent for 2010 to $7.45 billion, with business improving in the latter half of the year. BIFMA projects a strong 11.1 percent rebound in North American shipments in 2011 to $8.27 billion. An updated quarterly outlook from BIFMA is due soon. Among companies reporting quarterly results this month, East Greenville, Penn.-based Knoll Inc. posted sales of $192.3 million, a 4.9 percent decline from the same period a year earlier but up 9.7 percent sequentially from the first quarter. Office furniture sales at Iowa-based HNI Corp. grew 7.8 percent over a year earlier to $342.7 million for the second quarter.
Aurora Group in Taiwan to Establish 1,000 Sales Outlets in China
Thursday 29 July 2010
The Aurora Group, Taiwan`s leading manufacturer of office furniture and equipment, which has 264 direct sales outlets in China, expects to raise that number to 300 by the end of this year, which ultimately will soar to 1,000. Y. P. Lin, the CEO, indicated that the market in China has been growing rapidly over the past decade to fuel continual interest in the market there. Lin disclosed that Aurora established an electronics plant in Shanghai in 1995, turning out mainly calculators and paper shredders, later expanding into production of office furniture and office automation equipment. It has 174 outlets in eastern China, mostly in the coastal area, 40 in the north and 50 in the south, mainly in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. To raise profile among Chinese consumers, Aurora spent about 100 million renminbi on a pavilion-one of only five such pavilions at the Shanghai Expo, running from May to October. Lin said that the annual market value of office furniture in China is estimated at 100 billion RMB, and Aurora focuses on the mid- and top-tier segments that account for about 10 billion RMB or one-tenth of the entire market. Aurora is a top-10 OA furniture brand in China, where it generated 43% of group revenues last year, and the figure is expected to jump to 50% this year.
HNI Corp. reports increase in sales
Saturday 24 July 2010
Muscatine, Iowa-based HNI Corp., the parent company of HON, has reported sales of $398.2 million and income from continuing operations of $5.6 million for the second quarter ending July 3. Net income per diluted share from continuing operations for the quarter was 12 cents, or 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis when excluding restructuring and impairment charges and transition costs. Consolidated net sales increased $23.5 million or 6.3 percent to $398.2 million. Gross margins were 1.5 percentage points higher than prior year primarily due to higher volume and cost reduction initiatives partially offset by lower price realization and higher mix of lower margin products in the office furniture segment. Second quarter results included $2.4 million of restructuring and transition costs associated with shutdown and consolidation of production of office furniture manufacturing locations. Included in 2009 were $5.2 million of restructuring charges of which $1.4 million were included in cost of sales. Second quarter 2009 also included a non-operating gain of $1.3 million. HNI is a group of seven companies, each representing a family of brands, products and services for the office and home environments. According to its website, it is the second-largest office furniture manufacturer in the world, and the USA’s leading manufacturer and marketer of gas- and wood-burning fireplaces.
Boss Design goes for growth
Tuesday 20 July 2010
Contract seating supplier Boss Design of Dudley, UK, has announced a successful start to the year with sales up by 35% in the first quarter of 2010.
S&P and Steelcase ratings
Monday 19 July 2010
A Standard & Poor's analyst affirmed his ratings on U.S. office furniture maker Steelcase and removed it from CreditWatch with negative implications. Consumers cut back on buying high-priced items during the recession, hurting the furniture industry. But S&P analyst Rick Joy said demand is improving. "We believe U.S. office furniture manufacturer Steelcase's recent performance has shown improving trends and that this positive momentum will continue over the next year as demand recovers," he said. The negative outlook reflects "an uncertain economic environment and credit measures that are currently very weak for the rating, though we expect substantial improvement over the near term as the company's business recovers," he added. S&P has a "BBB-" corporate credit rating on Steelcase, a medium grade, investment grade rating. Steelcase's shares ended Monday up 4 cents at $6.87
Aaron’s Inc closing office-furniture unit
Thursday 1 July 2010
Aaron's Inc. will shut down its Aaron's Office Furniture division, including a store in Charlotte, and take a $9.5 million hit to its pre-tax earnings. The Atlanta-based furniture, electronics and appliance rentals retailer said it closed all but four of its Aaron's Office Furniture stores during the second quarter and now plans to have them all shut down by Sept. 30. Those final four locations include an operation at 4744 South Blvd. The others are in Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and Hialeah, Fla. In 2009, the unit generated $16.5 million in revenue with a pre-tax loss of $7.8 million. For the first quarter of 2010, revenue was $3.9 million, and the pre-tax loss was $1.4 million. Second-quarter revenue is expected to be lower, with comparable losses, the company says. Aaron's will take $9.5 million in charges related to closure of the office-furniture unit. That includes the write-down and cost to dispose of office furniture, estimated future lease liabilities for closed stores, the write-off of leaseholds, severance pay, and other associated costs of closing the stores and winding down the division. "When we sold our legacy residential rent-to-rent business in 2008, we decided to keep the 13 Aaron's Office Furniture stores," Robert Loudermilk Jr., president and chief executive of Aaron's, says in a statement. "At the time, we believed there were still opportunities in the leasing and selling of office furniture. However, the office furniture business is highly cyclical, and with the economic conditions of the last several years, the stores have experienced declining revenue and have not been profitable. With no growth or profitability in sight, rather than spending more effort attempting to build this business and incur additional losses, we concluded we should exit the office furniture market and concentrate our future efforts on our sales and lease ownership stores." Atlanta-based Aaron’s also has trimmed its earnings guidance for the second quarter to a range of 29 cents to 33 cents per share from the previous guidance of 37 cents to 41 cents per share, and for the year to $1.36 to $1.48 per share from the previous guidance of $1.48 to $1.60 per share. "Our Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership business continues to grow and gain customers, but we believe many customers are cautious as the current economic conditions are having an effect of them," Loudermilk says. "Traffic in the stores has remained good and we still look forward to having an outstanding year."
HAL abandons the takeover of ASPA
Tuesday 29 June 2010
HAL Holding Investment Company announced today that it has renounced the acquisition of office furnisher ASPA , the former Samas Benelux together with its sister companies and Assen Assen BV Burg Burg Sales Ltd. HAL announced on 8 April 2010 that there would be a merger of the interests of HAL 's subsidiary, Stonehaven (40 percent) and Andreas Holding II (60 percent) Andreas Office II . This company is the holding company of ASPA Benelux BV , Assen Assen BV Burg Burg Sales BV. Andrew Holding II is owned by Tinseltown Investments. HAL had option rights over all the shares of Holding Andreas, but no agreement could reach with Tinseltown Investments. An investigation revealed that the book market and the financial position of ASPA Benelux was such that Stonehaven decided not to exercise the options '' said HAL .
Bene 1st quarter sales decline and losses
Monday 28 June 2010
Office furniture manufacturer Bene, which last year lost € 17.2 million, announced its 1st quarter’s results to 30 April 2010. Sales fell by 21.6 percent to € 37.2 million - the lowest quarterly sales since going public three and a half years ago. Growth of 8.4% in the domestic Austrian market failed to offset the weakness in other major markets - Germany (down 36.2 percent) and the UK (minus 43 percent ) and Russia (down 46.6 percent ). The drop in sales is reflected in earnings . EBITDA moved from a plus of 1.2m Euros to a minus 0.9 million Euros. The financial result deteriorated from minus €0.5 to minus 0.8 million . The company's net loss increased from 1.9 to € 3.92 million . Employee numbers fell by 292 employees (19.1 percent) and investments reduced by 3.7m Euros to 1.4 million.
Herman Miller restores most US workers' pay and ends short working as sales begin to improve
Friday 25 June 2010
Just in time for summer, the every-other-Friday holiday is gone for 3,544 Herman Miller Inc. employees in West Michigan. The time-and-pay cuts of 10 percent began in the spring of 2009, as the recession gained strength and office furniture orders stalled. The 40-hour work week returned at the beginning of June. "During the fourth quarter (2010), we made the decision to return to a full week," said Greg Bylsma, chief financial officer. In a Thursday morning conference call with analysts, Bylsma said salary and wage cuts were also being reinstated. Hourly workers regained 100 percent of their former wage, but salaried employees got 95 percent, a 5 percent boost from the furlough rate. If the company does well, those employees could fill in that 5 percent wage gap. Herman Miller's fiscal year ended May 29, and it closed its fourth quarter with a slim uptick in sales, to $321.5 million from $319.9 a year before. Other major parameters were lower: $2.1 million in profits for the quarter, compared to $7.2 million a year ago; $1.32 billion in 2010 sales, down 19 percent from $1.63 billion in 2009; and 2010 profits of $28.3 million, down steeply from $68 million the previous year. "For the second year in a row, we suffered a 19 percent descent in sales," CEO Brian Walker told industry analysts. "Ours is not the first generation of the company to deal with tough times." But the outlook is upbeat for the current quarter. Based on an influx of orders late in the fourth quarter, and the pace so far this quarter, Herman Miller expects its first quarter sales will be up by 10 to 15 percent over a year ago. While the outlook is brighter, the pace remains a crawl. "Financial and business areas are hardest hit," Walker said. "There's signs of life for those folks, but it's nowhere near where it was." Projects in the "bread and butter range," those costing between $1 million and $5 million, are also slow.
Strong 4th quarter orders to help Herman Miller
Thursday 24 June 2010
Analysts say strong orders in the fourth quarter bode well for Herman Miller Inc. this year, even as the maker of office furniture's recent results missed estimates. After the market closed, the company said its fiscal fourth-quarter net income fell by more 70 percent, missing analyst estimates. But the company reported that the pace of new orders is increasing and reached its highest level in 19 months, rising 12.5 percent to $364.5 million. The Zeeland-based office furniture maker earned $2.1 million for the last three months, down from 7.2 million for the same quarter last year. Sales were nearly even at $321.5 million, but orders rose 12 and a half percent, giving CEO Brian Walker hope that “we’re turning the corner in an economy that still faces challenging questions.”
A sign of the times? Finnish Martela to acquire used furniture operations
Thursday 24 June 2010
Finnish office furniture maker Martela Oyj said today that it agreed to acquire the used furniture business, operating under the name Martela Poistomyynti, of office furniture recycling and sales company Pa-Ri Materia Oy. The value of the deal was not disclosed. Martela Poistomyynti employs 25 people and had revenue of EUR1.3m in 2009. Under the deal, Martela Poistomyynti' staff and outlets in the Helsinki area and Tampere, southern Finland, will be transferred to Martela. Pa-Ri Materia (http://www.pari.fi) will continue to process furniture not suitable for reuse into usable waste, secondary raw materials for industry and for generating energy. Since the founding of Martela Poistomyynti, Martela has worked closely with Pa-Ri Materia. At the beginning of 2010, the furniture maker opened an own used furniture outlet in Turku. Martela said plans to expand its recycled furniture business elsewhere in Finland, too.
Steelcase Reports First Quarter Results
Monday 21 June 2010
Steelcase Inc today reported a first quarter net loss of $(11.1) million, or $(0.08) per share, including an $(11.4) million charge resulting from the recently enacted healthcare reform legislation specifically related to the Medicare Part D Subsidy. Steelcase reported break-even net income in the first quarter of the prior year. First quarter revenue of $541.8 million, in comparison to prior year, was negatively impacted by $(14) million from the deconsolidation of dealers completed in the last twelve months and positively impacted by approximately $6 million of favourable currency translation effects. Adjusted for these impacts, the company experienced organic revenue growth of one percent over the prior year. "After six straight quarters of year-over-year revenue declines during this current industry downturn, we are pleased with the organic revenue growth in the first quarter," said James P. Hackett, president and CEO. "Even though the growth was modest, our operating results improved significantly as a result of our cost reduction efforts over the past two years." The current quarter operating loss of $(1.4) million represents an improvement of $3.8 million over the prior year operating loss of $(5.2) million which included $16.8 million of income associated with an increase in cash surrender value of variable life company-owned life insurance policies (variable life COLI income). Current quarter results include $(2.5) million of restructuring costs compared to $(2.8) million of restructuring costs in the prior year. Adjusted for these items, first quarter adjusted operating income of $1.1 million improved $20.3 million compared to the prior year adjusted operating loss of $(19.2) million. "The $20 million year-over-year improvement in adjusted operating income is a reflection of our commitment to reduce our cost structure in response to current volume levels," said David C. Sylvester, vice president and CFO. "As the recovery begins to take shape, we remain committed to cost containment efforts in order to allow for maximum leverage from volume growth." Cost of sales improved to 69.9 percent of sales in the quarter from 70.9 percent in the prior year, primarily due to benefits from restructuring activities and other cost reduction efforts and lower commodity costs, and despite lower variable life COLI income in the current quarter. Operating expenses in the first quarter, which included the reinstatement of salaries to fiscal 2009 levels, were $161.9 million compared with $161.0 million in the prior year. Benefits from prior restructuring activities and other cost reduction efforts and the effect of dealer deconsolidations offset lower variable life COLI income and the reinstatement of salaries. The income tax expense recorded in the quarter included an $11.4 million charge resulting from the recently enacted healthcare reform legislation specifically related to the Medicare Part D Subsidy. Other income, net increased $4.5 million over the prior year to $1.8 million, driven largely by $4.0 million of variable life COLI income, which is now recorded as a non-operating item given the designation of these assets as an additional source of corporate liquidity. Cash, short-term investments and the cash surrender value of variable life company-owned life insurance totaled $243.8 million and total debt was $298.7 million at end of the first quarter. Outlook All reporting segments experienced year-over-year order growth during the first quarter. The company expects second quarter fiscal 2011 revenue to be in the range of $560 to $585 million. This estimate includes an assumption of approximately $(14) million from unfavorable currency translation effects. The company reported revenue of $578.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2010, which included $13 million of revenue from dealers which have since been deconsolidated. Adjusting for these impacts, the company projects organic revenue growth in the range of 2 to 6 percent over the prior year. Steelcase expects to report net income of $0.01 to $0.05 per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2011, including approximately $(4) million of pre-tax restructuring costs. This compares to break-even earnings per share in the second quarter of fiscal 2010, which included $(17.4) million of pre-tax restructuring costs and significant variable life COLI income. "We stayed focused on our long-term strategy during the industry downturn," said James P. Hackett, president and CEO. "Now, with positive momentum from the first quarter and the expected organic growth in the second quarter, we continue to believe we could achieve modest organic revenue growth in fiscal 2011 over last year."
First cradle-to-cradle certificate in Europe for Ahrend 500 table system
Thursday 17 June 2010
Ahrend has become the first European office furniture producer to get a Silver cradle-to-cradle certificate. The international furnisher has been a leader in the fields of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the integration of environmental policy in its corporate objectives since the 1990s. Ahrend announced in 2008 that it was going to structure its business activities in line with the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) principles developed by German chemist Michael Braungart and American architect William McDonough. The C2C philosophy rests on three basic ideas. The first and best known is ‘Waste equals Food.’ This applies not only in the biosphere (when for example a discarded apple core is turned into compost) but also in the world of industry, where materials or parts should always be reused or recycled wherever possible. The second principle is the use of sustainable energy, and the third is the sensible use of raw materials and natural resources such as water.
Steelcase Receives Five Best of NeoCon Awards at NeoCon 2010
Tuesday 15 June 2010
The Steelcase family of companies won five Best of NeoCon Awards, including a Gold, two Silver and two Innovation Awards. Products recognized with a Best of NeoCon award include selections from Workplace Technologies, Furniture Systems, Education Solutions, Files & Storage and Occasional Table categories, all of which weree on display at NeoCon 2010, the World's Trade Fair for Interior Design and Facilities Management. Sponsored by Contract magazine, the Best of NeoCon awards recognize the top new products introduced at the show. Steelcase won a Gold award for RoomWizard, the first web-based scheduling system, in the Workplace Technologies category. The product was redesigned for a more mobile and connected workplace, with features that help schedule and manage meeting spaces to make better use of precious real estate and time. The first of two Silver awards went to FlexFrame(TM) workwall in the Files & Storage category. FlexFrame workwall is a wall-mounted, frame-based system that can be used in any space plan. The product "activates" vertical spaces for high-performance, tailored applications of storage, information display and technology integration. Topo by Coalesse, Steelcase's premium life/work furnishings division, won the second Silver award for Steelcase in the Furniture Systems: Enhancements category. With a new series of freestanding components, the award-winning Topo collection is uniquely clean-lined and easy to install while providing designers with a fresh palette of space-conserving options. In addition, node(TM) won an Innovation Award in the Education Solutions category. Built for many modes of learning, the node classroom chair is designed for easy transitions between lectures and group work. The chair offers active learning environments for co-learning, co-creation and group discussion to cater to the modern classroom. Rounding out the list of winners for Steelcase, SW_1 by Coalesse won an Innovation Award in the Tables: Occasional category. SW_1 is a collection of collaborative height and traditional occasional tables that support the social and collaborative activities that frequently occur during the knowledge creation process.
Furniture Sales rise in Ireland
Friday 11 June 2010
Irish furniture volume and value of retail sales rose in the latest Retail Sales Index for April 2010. According to figures released by the Central Statistics Office, furniture and lighting volume and value of retail sales both increased by 13.2% and 5.7% respectively. Overall retail sales volume increased by 6% compared to April 2009, the first year-on-year rise since March 2008. Overall value of retail sales rose by 1.6% for the same period, which saw the first year-on-year rise since February 2008.