Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) released its monthly TRENDS report, showing average sales for HARDI distributor members increased by 4.7 percent in July 2017.

The average annualized growth for the 12 months through July 2017 was 8.8 percent.

 “One reason HARDI members like TRENDS so much is it provides insight into regional markets,” said HARDI Market Research & Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. “The country experienced dramatic weather differences during July.  One region had almost 30 percent fewer cooling degree-days versus last year while another had almost 10 percent more. The region’s sales performance reflected the different operating environments.”

 “US Industrial Production transitioned to Phase B, Accelerating Growth, in June,” said HARDI Senior Economist Connor Lokar.  “We expect this to drive accelerating consumer spending through mid-2018 before the rate of growth slows throughout 2019.”

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is now less than 45 days. “July and August are the seasonal low points for the annual DSO cycle,” said Loftus. “The modest sales activity during this important seasonal month probably led to the conservative result.”

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