Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), Columbus, Ohio, released its monthly TRENDS report on Thursday, which showed the average sales performance by HARDI distributors increased 9.3% in July after posting an increase of 22.1% in the prior month.

The average annual sales growth for the 12 months through July was 17.2%.

“9.3% growth looks modest after the extraordinary recent gains of 20% to 30%,” said HARDI Market Research & Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus.  “With the same number of billing days, we estimate the sales growth for the month would have been more than 14% or almost twice the median monthly sales gain during the past ten years.”

The Days Sales Outstanding, a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, was 40 days at the end of July 2021.

“Bills were paid about four days quicker than July’s before the COVID related business interruptions,” said Loftus.

The annual sales growth of 17.2% through July was flat compared to June, and off lightly from the 17.6% record rate through May.

“Along with the healthy economic recovery, the sales growth is getting an extra boost this year from the frequent price increases that distributors have had to pass through,” Loftus said. “The Producer Price Index for the industry has increased by 9% during the 12 months through July and there is another round of price increases for the market to digest during August and September.”