Tables, sofas & Co.
Furniture business is weakening: there is a threat of a 15-year low value
The furniture industry is under pressure, the business losses last year were violent. What’s next this year? Current numbers give little reason to hope.
Germany’s furniture manufacturers lose ground because people spend less money on sofas, tables, chairs, beds and mattresses. After the industry had to accept 7.8 percent in sales last year, the business also weakened in 2025. In the first half of the year, revenues dropped by 5.1 percent to 7.9 billion euros, as the association of the German furniture industry in Cologne announced.
A minus of three percent is forecast for the year as a whole – then it would be just under 15.9 billion euros and therefore as little as it has not been for a long time. In 2010, revenues were around 15.8 billion euros – even this value may be undercut.
“The recovery of consumer mood is still a long time coming,” said the association manager Jan Kurth. As a further reason for the development, he named the difficult economic framework, which included the consequences of US customs policy.
On the one hand, he said the fact that German furniture exporters in the United States have to increase prices due to increased tariffs and therefore have a difficult stand on the market. For a long time, furniture from Germany in the United States only fell an average of 2.5 percent, in April it was 10 percent high and since this month it has been 15 percent.
Heavy stand in the United States
In the ranking of the most important export states for German furniture companies, the United States is only 10th place. However, indirect effects of the US volume increase have a negative impact: Asian manufacturers are oriented around and are no longer pushing to North America, but to Europe – this increases the price pressure for German producers.
In the first half of the year, the value of Chinese furniture imports in Germany rose by a quarter to 1.7 billion euros. Kurth said that the pure price war against such competition was hopeless. “We do not become competitive with China when it comes to making a chair for 25 euros.” However, one could convince with arguments on the quality, security and origin of the materials.
The furniture segments developed differently. The sale of mattresses and office furniture dropped particularly strongly in the first half of the year and the business with upholstered furniture also developed above average. The minus in kitchen furniture was comparatively low.
In February, the association still assumed that sales will increase somewhat this year. Now the association changed its forecast and assumed a minus of three percent in 2025. Among other things, this said association leader Kurth that the spirit of optimism hoped for with the new federal government has so far failed to materialize.
Autumn weather could push furniture sales
After all, things should go uphill in autumn. Then the vacation time is over, the weather gets worse and people spend more time in their own four walls, which increasingly think about the purchase of new furniture, according to the experiences of the furniture industry.
The focus of the German furniture industry is in East Westphalia. The industry has been under pressure for a long time, some companies slid into bankruptcy: the bed and cabinet manufacturer Loddenkemper from Oelde and the kitchen manufacturer RWK & Kuhlmann hired production this year.
dpa
Source: Stern
