A broken clock is right twice a day... In my 9/3/09 post (BIFMA Office Furniture Forecast - More Contraction) about the Business and Industrial Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFMA) forecast for 2010 office furniture production, I commented "I would assume we will see several downward revisions before we get to 2010". Hey what do you know -- I was right...
BIFMA released their most recent forecast for 2010 this week - and they have revised their forecast for office furniture shipments down by a pretty hefty 4.6%. BIFMA estimates that the industry will ship $7.43 billion in domestically produced office furniture in 2010, down from their forecast of $7.79 billion for 2009 (which is down 30% from 2008 actual shipments).
I'm going to go out on a limb and say I expect more revisions -- BUT, I actually think we may see future revisions going the other way. From the indications I am seeing - we have been scraping the bottom since early summer, and I believe conditions have improved. BIFMA's forecast is generally a "lagging" forecast (somewhat of an oxymoron) - and I believe we will see positive revisions coming.
BIFMA released their most recent forecast for 2010 this week - and they have revised their forecast for office furniture shipments down by a pretty hefty 4.6%. BIFMA estimates that the industry will ship $7.43 billion in domestically produced office furniture in 2010, down from their forecast of $7.79 billion for 2009 (which is down 30% from 2008 actual shipments).
I'm going to go out on a limb and say I expect more revisions -- BUT, I actually think we may see future revisions going the other way. From the indications I am seeing - we have been scraping the bottom since early summer, and I believe conditions have improved. BIFMA's forecast is generally a "lagging" forecast (somewhat of an oxymoron) - and I believe we will see positive revisions coming.
