Herb Woerpel is a senior editor with The ACHR NEWS. He is committed to delivering practical, insightful information in an accessible, engaging way. Herb joined BNP Media in 2011. He most recently served as editor-in-chief of Engineered Systems and was previously employed as managing editor of The ACHR NEWS. Before joining BNP Media, he worked as a reporter with the Advance Newspapers, a subsidiary of MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. He holds a bachelor’s degree in news editorial journalism from Central Michigan University and boasts 16-plus years of professional journalism experience. Contact him at 248-786-1583 or herbwoerpel@achrnews.com.
Taking care of customers is a fundamental requirement of HVACR distribution success, and, undoubtedly, each of the companies featured in Distribution Center’s Top 50 list provide exceptional customer service.
While several of the companies featured in Distribution Center’s Top 50 Distributors of 2018 list had banner years, few accrued as much success as Winsupply Inc. The Dayton, Ohio-based company, which ranked No. 6 on this year’s list, surpassed $3.2 billion in sales last year. Yes, that's billion with a ‘B.’
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers is projected to grow 15 percent over the next eight years, which is much faster than the average for all occupations.
The influence of the HVACR industry is growing on Capitol Hill, and the focus is paying off. Changes to the tax law passed in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will allow Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) members to invest more and the industry to grow.
Back when I started, we always tried to do what was right for our customers and employees. That holds true today. We’ll absolutely put ourselves in our employees’ and customers’ positions and use that as a sounding board for whether we’re doing the right thing.
HARDI facilitates each benchmarking program via partnerships with four unique vendors. Members’ proprietary data is sent directly to the vendors, where it is securely stored and protected. At no time in the process does HARDI have access to the data that serves as the catalyst for each analytics report.
“Numbers have value,” said Brian Loftus, market research & benchmarking analyst at HARDI.
If you were to paint a picture of the HVACR industry today, you’d need many shades of gray.
The average technician is around 56 years old. And, while the baby boomer generation has a lot to offer in regards to knowledge, work ethic, and experience, they aren’t going to be turning wrenches forever. In fact, approximately 10,000 baby boomers retire every day. For an industry that relies heavily on an aging workforce, this is not a promising statistic.
Two-step distribution — where manufacturers sell to distributors and distributors sell to contractors — has proven to be an effective HVACR business model for decades.
Court decision overturns Honeywell, Chemours appeal, determines the EPA doesn’t have the authority to require manufacturers to utilize low-GWP replacement refrigerants
The ruling conceptually overturns a 2015 EPA proposal by former president Barack Obama’s administration to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in retail food refrigeration HVACR applications.