The United States is the clear leader when it comes to the size of furniture markets worldwide. After a number of Asian, European and South American countries, Canada comes eleventh in the ranking, with a revenue of over 28 billion U.S dollars recorded in 2020. The gross domestic product of furniture and related product manufacturing reached over 4.3 billion Canadian dollars in March of 2021. Furniture manufacturing is a big part of Canada’s economy, with many jobs created along the chain of production. Ontario has 1,507 furniture manufacturing establishments, the highest number in Canada, followed by Quebec with 1,298 stores.
Leon’s Furniture opened their first store in 1909 in the Canadian province of Ontario. Today, Leon's is a major retailer in the furniture market in whole of Canada and operates 128 stores in Ontario. The revenue of Leon’s Furniture has steadily grown in recent years, up until 2019, when it reached around 2.28 billion Canadian dollars. In 2020, the revenue decreased slightly, caused by the pandemic. The coronavirus notwithstanding, the revenue of furniture and home furnishing stores in Canada as a whole has also enjoyed steady growth, with retail sales rising year on year to around 19 billion Canadian dollars in 2019.
As retail sales of furniture have grown in Canada, the monthly export value of furniture and fixtures has fluctuated. In April 2020, Canada exported around 290 million Canadian dollars worth of furniture, the lowest value recorded in recent years. This dip in export did not last long though, and as of 2021, the export value has recovered to monthly levels of 500 million Canadion dollars and higher.