Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) released its monthly TRENDS report, showing average sales for HARDI distributor members increased by 10.9 percent in November 2016.

The average annualized growth for the 12 months through November 2016 was 8.5 percent. This was the third consecutive month with an annual rate that was greater than 8 percent.

“November had fewer heating degree days than the prior year,” said HARDI Market Research & Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. “That was offset by November 2016 having one extra billing day than November 2015.”

“Retail Sales had a fantastic November," said HARDI Senior Economist Connor Lokar. “The sequential sales gain was one of the largest October-to-November increases in the last 20 years. The consumer has a full head of steam heading into December.”

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, increased to 47.3. 

“This is the first month in a long time that the DSO has exceeded the comparable prior year period,” Loftus said.