On July 24, Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) released its monthly report, which showed sales by HARDI distributors increased by 2.3% in May.

This follows a -4% decline in April and a flat March.

“After March was about flat and the -4% decline last month, it was nice to see some modest growth during May against a very strong prior year,” said HARDI Macroeconomic and Residential Market Analyst Brian Loftus in a news release.  “We had an extra billing day during May of 2023 to help the sales comparison against the 26% gain during May of 2022.  Without the extra day, we estimate sales were off in the -2.5% area.”

The annual sales growth for the 12 months through May 2023 is 9.1%.

The Days Sales Outstanding, a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, was 40 days in May. This shows no warning signs of strain despite distributor sales growth slowing, Loftus said.

“May is one of the most important months of the year for AC sales at HARDI distributors and the weather was not helpful for the start of cooling season this year,” Loftus said.  “Cooling degree days were off by -41% versus May 2022 and below normal in six of our seven regions.”