Hooker Furnishings CEO Flags Housing, Tariff Headwinds As Home Meridian Sales Plunge 44.5%

Hooker Furnishings (HOFT) CEO Jeremy Hoff stated that the home furnishings industry continues to face headwinds from low existing home sales, elevated mortgage rates, and persistent inflation, all of which are weighing on consumer confidence and demand.

“Home Meridian net sales were down 44.5% compared to the prior year's second quarter, as this segment was heavily impacted by tariff-related buying hesitancy and persistent macroeconomic pressures among its value-focused customer base,” Hoff said on a post-earnings call.

Retail sentiment on Hooker Furnishings improved to ‘bullish’ from ‘neutral’ territory a day ago, with message volumes at ‘high’ levels, according to data from Stocktwits.

Shares of Hooker Furnishings were down over 11% during midday trading. The company’s second-quarter net sales came in at $82.15 million, compared with Wall Street expectations of $91.17 million, according to data compiled by Fiscal AI. Its loss per share was $0.31, compared with estimates of a loss of $0.16 per share.

The company stated that it was implementing a multi-phase cost reduction strategy designed to achieve approximately $25 million in annualized savings by fiscal year 2027. In the first half of fiscal 2026, we achieved $3.7 million in expense reductions, despite having recorded $1.7 million in restructuring charges.

Hoff noted that in late July, the U.S. government announced a 20% tariff rate on imports from Vietnam, the main source country for Hooker and the home furnishings industry, effective August 1, 2025. 

“Each of our segments is taking a different approach to mitigating the Vietnam tariffs. For domestic upholstery, the impact is on component parts and fabrics, and we're able to mitigate through incremental measures such as new fabric sourcing,” Hoff said.

He added that for Hooker branded, the company was planning to remerchandise the line to manage the impact of the 20% tariff, evaluating pricing on a SKU-level basis rather than a blanket price increase. 

A user on Stocktwits noted that he expects the company to be able to navigate the supply chain impacts going forward.

Shares of Hooker Furnishings have declined 31% this year and 38% over the last 12 months.

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