As we have emphasized before, 2023 was a year of decline for the furniture industry. Forecasts prepared by B+R Studio for the report "Polskie Meble Outlook 2024" indicated that the beginning of 2024 would also not be favorable for the furniture industry and that it would be necessary to wait for improvement. At the end of February, the Central Statistical Office published the first official statistical data summarizing the results of, among others, the Polish furniture industry, and it is worth analyzing whether the scenario predicted by experts is coming true.
According to the latest data from the Central Statistical Office, the value of furniture production sold in January 2024 was 4,864.7 million PLN. For comparison, in January 2023, this value was 5,231.2 million PLN, so we are talking about a decrease of as much as 7% year-on-year. The result of January 2024 looks only better when compared to the value of furniture production sold in December 2023 (4,403.7 million PLN), which is typically one of the weakest months of the year due to Christmas and New Year's Eve. In this case, an increase of 10.5% was recorded.
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The decrease in the value of furniture production sold on a yearly basis is overshadowed by an even larger decrease in quantitative terms, although there is one exception here. In terms of production volume, it is analyzed in four groups of furniture, described as follows:
Seating furniture with mainly wooden structure (including furniture that can be converted into sleeping places),
-Wooden furniture, of the type used in kitchens,
-Wooden furniture, of the type used in bedrooms,
-Wooden furniture of the type used in dining rooms and lounges.
According to official data from the Central Statistical Office, in January 2024, 1,130,000 furniture pieces from the above-mentioned groups were produced, a decrease of 16% year-on-year, 243,000 pieces, an increase of 4.7% year-on-year, 501,000 pieces, a decrease of 5% year-on-year, and 2,606,000 pieces, a decrease of 19% year-on-year.
In summary, the first official statistical data on the value and volume of production, published by the Central Statistical Office, with a dose of zeal confirm the earlier predictions. The beginning of 2024 is a continuation of what we have seen throughout almost the entire year of 2023 and confirms our belief that we need to wait until the second half of the year for signs of improvement, and even longer for a recovery in the full sense of the word, until next year. More interesting data and forecasts for the Polish furniture industry can be found in the latest edition of B+R Studio's flagship report "Polskie Meble Outlook 2024".
Source: B+R Studio