Residential Carpet Sector May Have Bottomed

New York, NY, Jan. 19, 2012 -- Flooring industry analyst Stifel-Nicolaus says that the gap between commercial and residential carpet dollars remains wide.

"We believe Mohawk continued to outperform the industry, and Interface's domestic results within the modular segment at least matched, if not exceeded, industry results," the firm said.
 
The firm's updated statistics show that unit shipments of broadloom carpet declined 0.7% in the fourth quarter while dollars increased 3.1%.

Commercial dollars increased 6.2%, while residential carpet dollars were up only 0.8%, Stifel said.

"We believe mix is still playing a heavy role in both sectors, with the influence in commercial carpet primarily a switch to higher priced carpet tiles and the move down in price points in the residential marketplace," Stifel said.

"The negative unit figure in commercial represents the second consecutive quarter of negative year over year growth after positive growth in the prior four quarters. The residential decline of only 0.6% represents the least negative performance in the past five quarters, suggesting a bottoming in this sector."

Related Topics:Interface, Mohawk Industries