According to official data, the German furniture industry had a turnover of around 18 billion euros in 2023, 4.3 percent less than the previous year. Sales decreased both on the domestic market (minus 4.6 percent) and on the foreign market (minus 3.6 percent). The export share was 33.4 percent. “Our sector has been suffering for several months due to consumer reluctance to purchase, the causes of which in our opinion are inflation, the collapse of the construction sector, political uncertainty and geopolitical crises. It is mainly the consumer furniture sectors that are affected by the weakness in demand and not the investment goods segments such as office and shop equipment,” reports Jan Kurth, ceo of the German furniture industry associations.
While in the first half of the year the turnover was only 0.2 percent lower than in the previous year, due among other things to backorders, price increases and extraordinary statistical effects, in the second half of the year it a sharp decline of 8.4 percent was recorded. “The current market weakness is also reflected in our incoming orders collected within the association, which in terms of quantity for the whole of 2023 averaged around 11 percent less than in the previous year “, says Kurth.
The biggest losses last year occurred in the “other furniture” segment, which also includes living room, dining room and bedroom furniture. Turnover in this division fell by 12.6 percent compared to the previous year to 5.6 billion euros. Even the manufacturers of mattresses (minus 11.2 percent to 524 million euros) and upholstered furniture (minus 3.2 percent to around 1 billion euros) had to suffer declines. For kitchen furniture, there was a slight decline of 0.3 percent to 6.2 billion euros. On the other hand, producers of office furniture increased (+2.6 percent to 2.3 billion euros) as did manufacturers of furniture for shops and other contract furniture (+3.3 percent to 2.2 billion euros) .
In December 2023, the turnover of German furniture manufacturers was 9.4 percent lower than the previous year’s level of 1.25 billion euros. All furniture sectors – with the exception of shop furniture and other contract furniture – recorded declines.
“The order situation remains tense at the start of the current year,” Kurth said. The market environment continues to be difficult: in addition to weak consumer sentiment, the sector is particularly concerned about the slowdown in new residential construction, which urgently requires political support. The director general of the association sees reason for cautious optimism in the decline in inflation and in the cuts in reference rates expected by the European Central Bank in the second half of the year.
Source: VDM
