HVACR Trends

Information to Inspire, Grow and Profit

AI for Distributor HR: Tools Worth Knowing About

Getting Started with AI for Distributor HR For distributors, people are the business.  You can operate with a lean inventory model, but without capable people, nothing works.  That reality is why AI for distributor HR is worth paying attention to now.  The tools have matured enough to handle real workflows, the costs are accessible, and the administrative burden they…

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Manufacturers – Why You?

For manufacturers, getting your message through the channel, let alone to end-users, can be a challenge. Most are conditioned (could be trained, sometimes it’s historical…

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nVent Earnings Reveal a Company the Channel Barely Recognizes | HVACR Trends

The nVent Portfolio Transformation Is Not Subtle / What the nVent Portfolio Transformation Means for the Channel nVent’s Q4 2025 earnings tell two stories.  The surface story is a record quarter with sales up 42% and backlog tripling to $2.3 billion.  The deeper story, the one that should matter more to every distributor and rep carrying nVent products, is that…

Prokeep Launches Distributor Order Automation With AI-Powered Quoting

Distributors talk a lot about speed.  Faster quotes.  Faster answers.  Faster fulfillment.  But the gap between talking about speed and actually building it into the quoting workflow is still wide at most branches.  Prokeep is trying to close that gap with a new distributor order automation platform that uses AI to convert incoming customer messages into ERP-ready quotes, and they…

Where Margin Is Hiding

Distributor margin rarely disappears in one dramatic event.  It leaks.  Slowly.  Through timing gaps, unclear handoffs, and processes that span multiple departments but belong to none of them.  The reality is that, in many cases, it didn’t truly disappear.  If that’s true, the obvious question is: Where is the margin hiding? Scott Sinning has spent years working on exactly these…

Malco Launches MalcoEdge HVACR Refrigeration Tools

Malco Tools has announced MalcoEdge, a new line of HVACR refrigeration tools designed for technicians working in the field. The following is from Malco’s announcement. Malco Tools Introduces New MalcoEdge™ Line of HVACR Refrigeration Tools Purpose-built to support every phase of refrigeration service ANNANDALE, MINN. (Jan. 27, 2026) — Malco Tools, one of the nation’s leading solution developers and manufacturers of high-quality…

AI for HVAC Distributors: A Practical Field Guide from Pilot to Profit

For HVAC-R distributors dealing with margin pressure, labor constraints, and increasingly complex quoting environments, AI is rapidly moving from curiosity to operational necessity. After nearly a year of research, interviews, and vendor evaluations, I am pleased to announce the release of The AI-Enabled Distributor: From Pilot to Profit: A Field Guide written specifically for distribution executives. This is not another…

Honeywell Q4 2025 Earnings Summary

Strong Order Growth and Record Backlog Accelerating, Separation Tracking Ahead of Schedule Honeywell Q4 earnings reflect a company in transition, posting strong results while preparing for a major restructuring in 2026.  Now headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Honeywell is a multinational conglomerate known for its building technologies, aerospace systems, materials, and safety and productivity solutions.  The company reported Q4 2025…

What Lennox’s Low Bar Tells Us About the HVAC Market Bottom

If you spent 2025 watching orders slow, inventory stack up, and replacement demand stall, you already know it was one of the most challenging HVAC markets in over a decade.  The question now is whether we have finally hit the HVAC market bottom, or whether there is more pain ahead.  Lennox’s Q4 results and 2026 guidance give us something concrete…

Women in HVACR Leadership Team Takes Shape for 2026

The HVACR industry talks constantly about workforce shortages, but too many of those conversations skip past one of the clearest opportunities sitting right in front of us.  Women make up roughly 3% of the HVACR workforce.  That number has barely moved in years.  If you want to solve the talent problem, you have to widen the pipeline, and Women in…