Articles

Home Depot entered into an agreement to acquire International Designs Group (IDG)—a construction materials conglomerate that includes UMI, Construction Resources (CR), Marva, European Granite & Marble Group, and Cancos Tile & Stone—from private equity firm Mill Point Capital. Read More

U.S. hard-surface imports in September 2023 continued to decline, with the $395.7 million in total value falling by 10% from August and 18.7% from the same time last year. Quartz-surface imports continue to lag behind last year, with September's volume falling by 25%. Marble, meanwhile, managed to increase in year-over-year volume -- by a scant 0.6%, but it's a positive. Read More

Floor & Décor reported net sales of $1.1 billion in Q3 2023, up 0.9% from $1.1 billion in Q3 2022. Read More

CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE recently issued the tables created by the Association’s Studies Center regarding the stone sector’s export trends in the first half of 2023. The overall export figure – covering both materials and extraction and processing technologies – showed essential confirmation of the record levels of 2022 (+0.1%), or worth of 1,566.3 million euros. Read More

The Tile Shop reported net sales of $98.6 million for Q2 2023, an 8.4% decline compared to sales of $1.08 billion for Q2 2022. Sales decreased at comparable stores by 8.0% during the second quarter of 2023 compared to the second quarter of 2022, primarily due to a decrease in traffic, which was partially offset by an increase in average ticket value. Read More

For Q2 2023, Floor & Décor reported a net sales increase of 4.2% to $1.14 billion from $1.09 billion in Q2 fiscal 2022. Comparable store sales decreased 6.0 Read More

The sharp decline in the U.S. housing market caught up with kitchen and bath product manufacturers and marketers in the first half of 2023. Dollar manufacturer sales (shipments minus exports plus imports) could have declined by 5.6 percent in the first half. Unit sales declined about 2.0 percent in the first half. Price increases, however, moderated along with inflationary pressures. The dollar sales decline this year compared to a 10.8 percent gain for all of 2022. First half 2023 sales declined along with the drop in new home construction and existing home sales as the Federal Reserve increased interest rates. Rising rates caused housing demand – new and existing – to drop sharper over the past year. Read More

2023 started as simply an extension of 2022. The industry could do no wrong. And then the industry had no answers for fixing how wrong the industry was. For the first time in years, the sales at manufacturing were not the perfect barometer as to how retailers did. Thousands of shipping containers stuck offshore in 2022 were finally delivered just as demand slowed down. Distributors who had been chasing stellar sales with built up inventory suddenly found themselves with way too much inventory for the second half of the year. Read More

U.S. floor coverings manufacturer sales (shipments minus exports plus imports) declined sharply in the first half of 2023 as final demand dropped and distributors and retailers worked off excess inventories accumulated in the second half of 2022. Manufacturers are also working through supply chain issues which significantly cut into import shipments. In addition, price increases leveled off as demand slumped and material cost pressures subsided. Catalina, however, sees the decline in manufacturer sales bottoming out in the third quarter of 2023 and could begin to recover in the fourth quarter as the inventory liquidation ends. Manufacturer sales could turn up by the fourth quarter as the drop in new home construction levels off, the decline in existing home sales slows, and commercial demand remains strong. Read More

In 2022, U.S. floor coverings sales slowed considerably from the sharp gains experienced in 2021, according to Catalina Research. The year started strong since flooring sales were still benefiting from the surge in housing demand in 2021. Floor covering sales growth weakened in the second half as the Federal Reserve sharply increased interest rates to curb inflationary pressures. Rising interest rates caused housing starts and existing home sales — the primary drivers of U.S. floor coverings sales — to decline sharply. At the same time, inflationary pressures and supply chain issues caused flooring prices and installation costs to surge. The rising cost of an installed floor resulted in customer purchases slowing at an even sharper rate than manufacturer sales. Read More