On Oct. 12, Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) released its monthly TRENDS report, showing sales by HARDI distributors increased by 4.5% percent during August.

The annual sales growth for the 12 months through August 2023 is 5.7%, according to HARDI.

“August is the last meaningful month of cooling season, and this summer was mixed,” said HARDI Macroeconomic & Residential Market Analyst Brian Loftus. “There were some unusual heatwaves in the headlines this summer, but nationally the cooling degree days were off by about 20% during May and June, then close to normal during July and August.”

The Days Sales Outstanding, a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, was near 40 days during August 2023.

“The DSO is shortest during the summer and longest during winter,” said Loftus. “The post-Covid DSO for August has been very close to 40 since August 2020. The stability or consistency is amazing, especially after the Fed’s actions and the market’s response. HARDI distributor’s peak annual sales growth rate was just before the Fed began increasing rates during March of 2022. Distributor sales growth has been under pressure as the Fed increased rates eleven times during the past eighteen months. Hopefully the Fed is about done, along with the downward pressure on distributor sales growth.”