Office Furniture Orders up 5%

New York, NY, July 9, 2007--Office furniture orders continued to slow in May toward a growth rate that tracks the GDP, according to Raymond James analyst Budd Bugatch.  In a research note Bugatch said the contraction in orders is finally starting to hurt public companies' stock performance.

The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) said May orders had increased 5 percent year over year to $975 million. Shipments rose 7 percent to $940 million.

Steelcase, HNI Corp., Herman Miller Inc. and Knoll Inc. enjoyed percentage order increases into the low double-digits in 2004 and 2005, but the industry has cooled since then.

In January, monthly orders fell for the first time since July 2004.

Since then, orders have increased an average of 5.2 percent year over year, which is about where they will remain, Bugatch said, in the absence of the emergence of a widely adopted innovation such as the cubicle.

"Net-net, the May results largely confirm our view about moderating industry growth to a nominal GDP-like range of 3%-6%," Bugatch wrote.

Until recently, however, investors remained complacent despite indications of slowing industry growth, Bugatch said.

That changed in June, as shares of all four of the major public office furniture companies' fell, underperforming the S&P 500 Index.