Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International released its monthly TRENDS report, showing average sales for HARDI distributor members increased by 9.9 percent in March 2016.

The annualized growth for the 12 months through March 2016 was 6 percent. The annual growth rate has remained very close to 6 percent for the past six months.

“This is a good start to the year after 11.7 percent growth in February,” said HARDI Market Research and Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. “The performance this month was consistent across the country. We segregate the U.S. into seven economic regions and the slowest regional growth was 7.5 percent.”

The Days Sales Outstanding, a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is now 48.8. “This compares favorably to this time of year recently,” Loftus said. “The relative improvement indicates customers are comfortably meeting their obligations while sales activity is brisk.”