Industry Forecast - January 2013

By Santo Torcivia

Every year, Market Insights/Torcivia, together with Floor Focus, produces the US FLOOReport, a detailed five-year forecast and analysis of the U.S. flooring industry. We have excerpted several predictions from the report to derive the basic trends we see for 2013, drilling down from the overall economy, through the retail channels, and then on to the various flooring products and consumers.

THE ECONOMY
Conditions will continue to slowly improve in the U.S. This is the slowest recovery in American history since World War II, but it is getting better, gradually. This could all be reversed if our representatives in Congress and the White House continue to play politics with our national debt and federal budget and drive our economy off a cliff and into another recession. However, I am assuming that at the last minute a compromise will be found, Washington will take a bow, and no new recession will develop. 

For the complete story, see the January 2013 issue of Floor Focus Magazine.