The Next HVAC Battleground: Owning the Contractor Lifecycle
It’s already happening in Europe. Manufacturers owning contractors as part of their data center strategy. Recently I was “trolling” LinkedIn and ran across an article from Carl Fredrik Sverdrup, a Zurich-based partner in an investment firm. His LinkedIn article focused on Mitsubishi Electric’s recent announcement of the acquisition of two groups to strengthen its installation and maintenance capabilities to…
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Women in HVACR Announces Breakout Speakers for Annual Conference
Women in HVACR (WHVACR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration trades, announces Carrie Fraser, Bryce Batts…
AI Is Confident. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Right.
Artificial intelligence has become one of the most transformative technologies of our time. It can write reports, summarize meetings, analyze spreadsheets, generate code, answer questions,…
Watsco’s Q2 Results Signal a Return to Normal: HVAC Market Stabilizes
Watsco, the Florida headquartered distributor in the North American HVAC market, serving over 125,000 contractors and installers through over 692 locations in the US, announced…
Lennox Q2 Results: Commercial Surge & Strategic Exit From Low-Margin Residential Shift Recovery to 2027
Lennox, a leading provider of climate control products specializing in HVAC solutions for residential and commercial market, announced 2Q 2026 earnings on July 29. Lennox’s…
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Watsco’s Q2 Results Signal a Return to Normal: HVAC Market Stabilizes
Watsco, the Florida headquartered distributor in the North American HVAC market, serving over 125,000 contractors and installers through over 692 locations in the US, announced 2Q 2026 earnings on July 29. Watsco reported second-quarter 2026 results that reflected a stabilizing but margin-compressed environment, with revenue up 2% to $2.1 billion. Gross profit declined 4% to $579 million as gross margin…
Lennox Q2 Results: Commercial Surge & Strategic Exit From Low-Margin Residential Shift Recovery to 2027
Lennox, a leading provider of climate control products specializing in HVAC solutions for residential and commercial market, announced 2Q 2026 earnings on July 29. Lennox’s results highlighted a stark divergence between its resilient commercial business and a persistently weak residential market, with revenue up 3% to $1.5 billion, missing expectations, and segment margin contracted 30 basis points to 23.0%, as…
Carrier and Trane Q2 Results: Data Centers Drive Record Backlogs Amid Rising Input Costs
Two of the leading HVAC manufacturers announced earnings within days of each other that were similar in both results and outlook with strong commercial propelled by data centers but facing cost pressures. Let’s take a look in more detail…. Carrier Global Carrier Global, the Florida headquartered multinational HVACR, fire and security equipment manufacturer, announced earnings for the 2Q 2026 on…
How Agentic AI Could Change How HVACR Contractors Buy Material
Amidst the conversation about AI and data centers, both of which distributors can benefit from, there is another conversation that, as typical, starts on the consumer side and then migrates to B2B. This is how AI is / may change business models Inevitably it does not occur as quickly as the Big 4 consulting pundits project, but it does seep…
What Matters to HVAC Contractors and What Makes Them Loyal
I recently wrote this article for a sister publication of HVACRTrends, ElectricalTrends (and did you also know we publish Industrial Supply Trends and US Lighting Trends?) I’m sharing it because it is about contractors. And the reality is that contractor behavior across construction trades is very similar. The big difference for the HVAC industry, and it is similar in plumbing,…
The $339,000 HVAC Financing Problem Sitting in Every Contractor Proposal
75% of homeowners know contractor financing exists. Only 1 in 3 has ever used it. That gap is entirely yours to close. MIT Taught Me the Lesson First I recently enrolled in the MIT No Code and Agentic AI program. The cost: $2,850. MIT gave me three payment options: Option 1: Pay in full. $2,850. Done. Option 2: Three payments.…
Today’s HVAC/R Contractor Scorecard
Twenty years ago, a contractor’s scorecard looked something like this: Equipment Brand Price Relationship Today, it looks very different: Availability Pricing Delivery Service and Support Ease of Doing Business Equipment Brand The HVAC/R industry has changed. The question is whether manufacturers and wholesalers have changed with it. For decades, the HVAC/R industry operated under a relatively simple assumption: contractors chose…
Did an Elephant Show Up at the Applied AI Conference?
Mark McGready, Director Data Analytics and Solutions for IDEA, attended the 2026 Applied AI for Distributors Conference organized by Distribution Strategy Group. While he spoke to attendees about IDEA’s Data Whispers solution and how Nudge (its avatar) helps drive sales, profits and acts as a virtual sales coach and information resource tailored to each distributor’s offering and is based upon…
