Significant drop in sales for the German furniture industry, which recorded a minus 9.7 percent to 8.3 billion euros in the first half of 2024. Specifically, in the domestic market, the 417 companies (with more than 50 employees) with a total of 71,841 employees achieved sales of about 5.6 billion euros, 9.1 percent less than in the same period last year. Foreign sales decreased even more significantly, falling 10.9 percent to 2.7 billion euros.
All segments of the industry suffered losses: in the kitchen furniture sector, turnover was about 2.9 billion euros (minus 9.8 percent). Upholstered furniture manufacturers recorded an 11.2 percent drop in turnover to about 500 million euros. The largest decline was in the other furniture sectors (including living room, dining room and bedroom furniture as well as furniture components), whose turnover fell 15 percent to 2.5 billion euros.
Negative numbers, but hinting at a faint sign of recovery. “We assume that the sector has hit rock bottom,” said Jan Kurth, managing director of the German Furniture Industry Associations during the annual economic press conference held in Cologne.
The first cautious indicators, the ceo explained, show that so far the consumer climate is improving over the course of the year. Moreover, in August the economic climate in the furniture sector, as measured by the Ifo institute (the index on business confidence monitored monthly by the Ifo insitute in Germany, ed.), improved slightly. It also instills confidence that many German citizens are seeing an increase in real wages in view of the leveling off of the inflation rate and wage increases.
The hoped-for recovery, however, will probably not be strong enough to offset the decline in sales seen in the first half of the year. “In this context, we anticipate a 7 to 9 percent decline in sales for the full year 2024,” Kurth predicts.
EXPORT
France remains the leading importer of German furniture, despite the 8.7 percent decline recorded (660 million euros). A negative trend also registered in other European markets-Switzerland (minus 8.3 percent), Austria (minus 13 percent), the Netherlands (minus 11.3 percent), the United Kingdom (minus 4.2 percent) and Belgium (minus 8.9 percent). Furniture deliveries to the United States-the main non-European market-held about the 2023 numbers, at about 130 million euros. In contrast, exports to China-the second largest non-European market-grew 6.4 percent to about 76 million euros.
