Chinese New Year and your lead times: a yearly plan

The sectional ordered in January has the right fabric, the right chaise, and a ten-week promise that quietly becomes sixteen. In this example, the factory's holiday closure was predictable. The missing step was putting it into the quote before the customer signed.

Build a yearly Chinese New Year lead-time plan around each vendor's actual production calendar. Work backward from the last reliable dispatch date, adjust affected quoting, and prepare customer messages before the factory closes. You can keep taking special orders through the season when the date you offer reflects the season.

Put the holiday on the calendar, then ask for the factory dates

Lunar New Year's Day changes on the Gregorian calendar. The Hong Kong Observatory's 2024 conversion table places it on February 10, 2024. Its calendar explanation and date table give January 29, 2025, February 17, 2026, and February 6, 2027.

Those are planning anchors, not factory reopening promises. For 2026, Hapag-Lloyd identifies the festival period ending with the Lantern Festival on March 3. The carrier also describes slower operations before the celebrations and pressure on transport capacity. A public holiday calendar alone cannot tell you when a particular upholstery line will resume normal output.

Ask each vendor for its last order-acceptance date for pre-holiday completion, last dispatch date, closure dates, first planned production date, and expected return to normal capacity. Request separate information for stock and made-to-order programs. A warehouse shipping finished chairs may operate on a different timetable from the workshop making new ones.

Plan for the restart as well as the shutdown

Reopening does not mean every production station is fully staffed and every component has arrived. DHL's factory-restart guidance describes staggered labor returns, equipment checks, and suppliers recovering at different speeds. Its example warns that a normal three-week lead time can extend to five or six after the holiday. That is the logistics provider's guidance, not a fixed buffer for every furniture order.

Ask where your actual PO sits in the queue. “Factory open” answers a different question from “your sectional has a confirmed production slot.” A finished frame waiting for imported hardware can remain unfinished furniture for quite a while. The holiday is over; the missing hinge has not received the memo.

The same care belongs in March quoting. Restore ordinary lead times only when the vendor confirms that the affected program has caught up, not when the first employee answers an email.

Work backward to an order-by date

Use the last reliable pre-closure dispatch date as the anchor for goods you need to leave before the break. Subtract production time, specification approval time, and a practical allowance for inspection and handoff to transport. If the customer needs delivery by a particular date, work backward through shipping, receiving, and your own delivery arrangements too.

For an illustrative planning exercise, suppose a vendor needs eight weeks of production, your approval process needs one week, and you allow one week for inspection and dispatch preparation. The complete order must be ready ten weeks before the last dependable dispatch date. The eight-week factory lead alone would leave you two weeks short.

This is a planning pattern, not a universal calendar. The holiday order-by guide explains the backward calculation in more detail. Put the resulting dates into your sales-event calendar before you advertise a delivery promise.

Choose the buffer by program, not by continent

Add enough time to cover the vendor's closure, the order's likely position in the restart queue, and the transport plan. Ask what the vendor's quoted lead time already includes so you do not add the same holiday allowance twice.

Separate affected lines by where and how they are made. A stocked dining chair, a custom upholstered sectional, and a locally finished table can have different exposures even when sold by the same vendor. Use the slower option when a particular fabric or component determines the completion date.

Vietnam needs its own conversation. Hapag-Lloyd names Vietnam among the countries celebrating Lunar New Year; the Vietnamese holiday is Tet. Ask the Vietnamese factory for its calendar instead of copying a Chinese vendor's dates. The useful answer is the schedule for the goods you are buying.

If a vendor says its factory stays open, ask whether the quoted output assumes normal staffing, available components, inspection, and transport. Keep the written commitment with the PO and establish a review point. Staying open can be meaningful evidence; it still needs to describe the order rather than just the office.

Carry seasonal lead times into OrderPilot

Adjust the affected option lead times and template overrides so your team works from the seasonal assumption. On the Template page, staff can review the options; the Admin order line shows the lead-time information for a made-to-order configuration. Where the online options block's lead-time display is enabled, shoppers see it there too. Lead times do not print automatically on quote PDFs or POs, so state the customer-facing window in your written quote communication. Review open quotes separately rather than assuming a catalog edit has changed every promise already made. The point is to make the next conversation accurate, including for customers who chose their fabric before the seasonal adjustment.

Set the requested delivery date on the PO to the date agreed with the vendor. Clarify whether that means delivery to your receiving location or another agreed destination; keep a factory dispatch estimate distinct from the customer's delivery appointment. On Professional, a custom Factory holiday status can represent the genuine pause, with a suitable customer-facing group and a status email. Give someone responsibility for putting affected orders into that status and moving them out when there is fresh evidence.

Prepare messages for the moments customers notice

Write the quote-stage explanation before the first seasonal sale. For example: “This fabric is made to order. The factory's holiday closure is included in the delivery window we've discussed. We'll confirm the production position after the restart and update you on Friday.”

At closure, make the update short: “The factory has now started its planned holiday break. Your sectional is in the post-holiday production schedule. Our next update will follow the vendor's restart review.” Add the actual review date before sending so the customer knows when to expect contact.

At restart, report what has changed: “The factory has reopened and confirmed your sectional's production slot. The expected dispatch window is now agreed. We'll update you again when the furniture leaves the factory.” Use this wording only after that confirmation exists. Email lets your store explain the details. On Growth or Professional, enabled status SMS uses fixed templates, so customized holiday wording belongs in email. Schedule a restart follow-up from the order after reviewing the vendor's plan, and review that scheduled message if the plan changes.

Keep selling with a promise you can explain

January is not automatically a stop-selling month. Offer the adjusted lead time, explain the relevant pause, and let the customer decide whether the wait suits the room. If they have a firm move-in date, discuss stocked or differently sourced alternatives using their real availability.

Avoid hiding the holiday inside “about ten weeks,” copying the previous year's dates, or treating an unanswered restart email as confirmation. If the vendor revises its commitment, follow the ship-date change workflow and tell the customer what that changes for them.

Keep the broader import planning guide alongside the calendar so purchasing considers landed cost as well as timing. Each autumn, replace the dates and contact each affected vendor again. Then prepare the delay message before you need it.

Sources

1. Gregorian-Lunar calendar conversion table of 2024 — Hong Kong Observatory, 2024.
2. No Lunar New Year's Eve on the 30th day for five consecutive years — Hong Kong Observatory, December 24, 2024.
3. Chinese New Year: how to prepare your supply chain — Hapag-Lloyd, carrier guidance.
4. Post-Chinese New Year factory restart — DHL, March 5, 2026, logistics-provider guidance.