Encyclopedia of American Industries
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Furniture & Fixtures
SIC 2511
WOOD HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE
WOOD HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE
This classification consists of establishments engaged in manufacturing wood furniture commonly used in dwellings, and with the exception of television, radio, phonograph, and sewing machine cabinets; also, millwork production is classified in SIC 2431: Millwork; wood kitchen cabinets are classified in SIC 2434: Wood Kitchen Cabinets. Cut stone and concrete furniture classified in the major group for stone, clay, glass, and concrete products; laboratory and hospital furniture, except hospital beds, are in the major groups for measuring, analyzing, and controlling instruments; photographic, medical and optical goods; watches and clocks; beauty and barber shop furniture are classified in the major group for miscellaneous manufacturing industries; and those engaged in woodworking to individual order or in the nature of reconditioning and repair are classified in nonmanufacturing industries.
Since the average consumer spends more on furniture within two years of moving into a new house than at any other time, slow growth in housing in the early 1990s undoubtedly depressed household furniture sales. However, housing starts rebounded in 1993 and 1994. Total wood household furniture sales-comprising about 42 percent of household furniture shipments-were $9.3 billion in 1993 out of a total of $22.2 billion for wood, upholstered, and metal household furniture.
An increase in consumer confidence seemed to benefit wood furniture makers such as Bassett Furniture Industries, which earned $27.5 million on sales of $473.4 million in the fiscal year ending November 30, 1992. Chairman and chief executive officer Robert H. Spilman commented in the Wall Street Journal that his company had had no backlogs of wood furniture since the stock market crash of 1987. "The opportunity has been much easier in upholstery," Spilman said. Bassett's largest customer was J.C. Penney and most of its efforts concentrated on mid-priced furniture. The company has 44 factories in the United States. The bedroom and dining room furniture segment has been hardest hit, according to Spilman. In 1992, Acton Corp. closed a wood furniture factory employing 200 people in Mebane, North Carolina, citing decreased demand for high-end bedroom and dining room furniture. In the same year, Stanley Furniture Co., a $160 million a year wood furniture company, closed a plant in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture was the fastest-growing segment of the wood furniture market in the early 1990s, accounting for 13%, or $1.3 billion, of. . .