United States. The Association of International Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors (HARDI) released its latest monthly trends report, which shows that average sales for HARDI distribution members decreased by 3.3% in May 2015.
The annual growth through May of this year was 5.1%. This is the slowest annual growth rate of more than a year, but the recent softness is mainly attributed to bad weather in much of the country.
"In May, the weather was not conducive to sales in construction or air conditioning activity across much of the country," said Brian Loftus, a market research specialist and benchmarking analyst. "This lowered the national annual growth rate, but four of the seven regions have experienced faster growth than 5.1%."
Time can be an important driver of HVACR sales. That's why May is traditionally one of the industry's peak sales months.
"When California has 22 degrees of cooling day this year, up from 83 in May 2014, or Arizona has 200 this year versus 306 last year, this will have a recognizable impact on the results," Loftus said.
