Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) has released its monthly TRENDS report, showing the average sales performance by HARDI distributors was an increase of 21.4 percent during December 2020.

The average annual sales growth for the 12 months through December 2020 is 4.1 percent.

"What a great way to end a challenging year," said HARDI Market Research and Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. "This December was helped by an extra billing day, but even adjusting for that, the sales growth would have been in the 16 percent area against 7.4 percent last year."

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is 44.5 days. “It looks like DSO has settled back to normal after being unusually brief this summer,” said Loftus. “This level is comparable to December in 2017 and 2018.”

Loftus said that while the health challenges and the employment disruption are heartbreaking, much of the economy keeps churning along. “Q4 GDP was up 4 percent after a 30 percent decline six months ago, low mortgage rates have the housing market soaring, and the latest Industrial Production report was stronger than expected. It all seems fragile and temporary until there is broad distribution of potent vaccines.”

HARDI members do not receive financial compensation in exchange for their monthly sales data and can discontinue their participation without prior notice or penalty. Participation is voluntary, and the depth of market coverage varies from region to region. An independent entity collects and compiles the data that can include products not directly associated with the HVACR industry.