It has been a choppy few months for those operating in the office furniture market, as Knoll’s Q2 earnings showed last week.
Global market weakness continued to plague the manufacturer as net sales for the Office segment fell 14.6% to $153 million, while group sales were down 8.8% on last year to $268.7 million. This was due to a combination of lower government sales and fewer large commercial projects.
Meanwhile, Knoll’s operating profit fell 33.6% to $22.2 million as the group was also hit by expenses of $2.2 million related to restructuring at its Office arm.
But on the earnings call, not even CEO Andrew Cogan could explain why the market was so weak in the company’s second quarter.
In a statement accompanying Knoll’s financial results, Cogan said: “The second quarter was a continuation of the challenging conditions we saw earlier in the year as Office shipments declined year-over-year and lagged the growth we experienced in our residential businesses.”
At the end of July, US wholesaler Essendant reported similar market softness with a 9% decline in furniture sales for its Q2, accompanying a poor performance across the board.
This doesn’t bode well for others in the commercial furniture space such as Steelcase and Herman Miller.