The latest report from Heating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) showed modest sales growth of 3.6 percent for November 2013, which is less than the 6 percent growth reported for November 2012. But, year-to-date, the growth rate as of November inched up to 6 percent, from 5.9 percent in October, which indicates stable growth, said Andrew Duguay, senior economist, HARDI.
“The Western region has cooled off significantly in the past two months, and it was a challenging comparison for the Mid-Atlantic region, because the prior year experienced 20 percent growth after Superstorm Sandy,” said Duguay. The report came out before the November-through-February timeframe, which is traditionally a slow period for distributors, but even so, the bigger concern is the health and progress of the sluggish recovery for the rest of 2014.