HARDI is offering members new reports focusing on the HVAC unitary market, thanks to a partnership with D&R International Ltd.

“This project is the first tool that allows us to accurately benchmark sales results by region and keep the HARDI distributor in touch with dynamic changes in terms of new systems. While we've had great benchmarking tools in the past, this new project allows the distributor to evaluate how effective they are at selling a product that can be more profitable for them and for their manufacturer partners,” said Tom Roberts, president of CFM Distributors and chairman the association’s HVAC Systems Council.

The Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International is working with D&R’s Better Data service, which allows members to report total unitary sales by model number and location and the system will do the rest.

“This is an exciting project to test a next-generation unitary sales report that couldn’t be easier for distributors to participate in while providing potentially priceless information about what kinds of equipment are actually selling and where,” said Talbot Gee, HARDI’s executive vice president.

Member distributors represent 90 percent of the total wholesale HVACR product sales in the United States, HARDI said.

The subscription-only Unitary HVAC Market Share Report is published quarterly with national and regional data. State-specific information is available.

"We have worked with a number of utility companies in the past," said Toby Swope, manager of data quality and analytics at D&R International. "They wanted to know where they should spend their money, so they enlisted us to take a look at the market. While doing our research, we encountered a number of questions regarding HVACR products, their capacities, (seasonal energy-efficiency rating) levels, the difference between ductless and ducted systems, and more. We found that this information is not widely available for the HVACR industry, so, it only made sense that we propose a study."

The first report is due later this year.