Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International released its monthly TRENDS report, showing average sales for HARDI distributor members declined by 1.5 percent in August 2017.

The average annualized growth for the 12 months through August 2017 was 6.7 percent.

“I think the slight decline for the month is actually very good performance because August 2017 is being compared to the extraordinary August 2016 when average distributor sales were up by 19.5 percent,” said HARDI Market Research & Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. “The population-weighted cooling degree days were 40 percent above normal in August of 2016.  Even though August 2017 had 7 percent more cooling degree days than normal, it was 26 percent fewer than the prior year heat wave.”

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is now near 42 days.

“July and August are the seasonal low points for the annual DSO cycle,” Loftus added. “This report matches the August 2015 and 2016 reports, so no sign of economic fatigue or stress.”