COLUMBUS, Ohio — Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) released its monthly TRENDS report, showing the average sales performance by HARDI distributors was an increase of 3.0 percent during October 2019.

The average annualized sales growth for the 12 months through October 2019 is 6.1 percent.

“An early blast of cold air got heating season off to a strong start last year,” said HARDI market research and benchmarking analyst Brian Loftus. “October this year was being compared to a month when five of our seven regions produced sales growth over 20 percent. We think some early season activity will be reflected in the November report.”

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is now at 47 days.

“The latest DSO is now a shade lower than the recent October reports,” said Loftus. “No sign of economic stress in this indicator.”

“Sales growth for four of the past six months has been 3 percent or less,” said Loftus. “This has cut the average annual growth rate in half from earlier this year. Many economic indicators are sagging also, but the slower sales growth has a lot to do with being compared to a very strong prior year.”

Employment levels and consumer spending continue to provide the basis for a soft landing forecast in 2020.

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