NAICS 33341Industry · 5-digitnational market

Ventilation, heating, air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration equipment manufacturing

SoftwareManufacturing Execution & Plant Automation 333

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing ventilation, heating, air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration equipment. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 460
Under 10 employeesA: 46%
Establishments · USA: 1,661
Employment · USA: 145,105
Payroll · USA: $8.8B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–413930%

5–97316%

10–195612%

20–497617%

50–995312%

100–199368%

200–499245%

500+31%

Of 460 Canadian establishments with employees, 46% have fewer than ten — an industry where large establishments carry real weight.

Where they areA

Ontario18540%

Quebec12828%

British Columbia5712%

Alberta5111%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Manufacturing, US · opened 2020

86.2%

1 year

70.8%

3 years

58.4%

5 years

45.3%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 333, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

national competitionmedium capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 333 Machinery manufacturing

Niche machinery builders hold defensible positions through application knowledge. Aftermarket parts and service are where the margin sits.

Who sets the price: Specification and engineering rather than a market price.
The software it runs on: Engineer-to-order ERP, product lifecycle management, service and parts.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 3334 Ventilation, heating, air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration equipment manufacturing covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 3334

Commercial HVAC Equipment PlantStructure decides

binding constraint: capital intensity

The pre-screen called this plant and pointed at the contractor records; the filings bear that out, but for a more specific reason than "factories are expensive". Demand is as good as it has ever been. AAON, the Oklahoma maker of semi-custom rooftop units and data-centre cooling — the nearest listed company to what a Canadian entrant would actually build — grew net sales 20.1% to US$1.44B in 2025 and ended the year with a record US$1.83B backlog, up 110.9% [A]. And in that same year its gross margin fell from 33.1% to 26.7% and net income fell from US$168.6M to US$107.6M, while it spent US$190.6M on capital expenditure — about 13% of sales — with another US$190.0M planned for 2026 [A]. That is the mechanism. In this industry an order book is converted into revenue only by floor space, coil lines, sheet-metal cells and test chambers that are bought and staffed before the units ship, and the margin is given up while the new plant learns to run. A company with a billion-dollar backlog absorbs that; an entrant has to fund the same sequence with no backlog to borrow against. Small makers do exist — 212 of Canada's 460 establishments have fewer than ten people — but the judgment here is that they are fabricating fans, hoods and one-off air handlers to a local engineer's drawing, which is a sheet-metal job shop, not an equipment line. The step from that to a catalogued, performance-rated product is the step that needs the capital, and a rated product must then still be taken on by a manufacturer's representative in each city who already carries a competing line. Plant software is screened separately.

NAICS 33345 vendors named12 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 333 Machinery manufacturing

Manufacturing Execution & Plant AutomationExecution decides

binding constraint: distribution

Incumbent Siemens Opcenter, Rockwell (Plex), SAP Digital Manufacturing

MES is sold and implemented through system integrators, not directly — the integrator relationship is the distribution channel and it takes years to build. The software also has to speak to whatever PLC and SCADA estate is already installed, which favours the vendors who supplied it. Anchored at the 333 subsector because MES spans all of discrete manufacturing rather than any one industry group. Sourced update: Rockwell's Software & Control segment grew 9% to $2,383M while lifting operating margin from 24.2% to 29.7%. An entrant is attacking a business that is compounding margin, which is the least promising moment to attack one.

NAICS 3333 vendors named3 sourced figuresOpen →

Catalogued categories — named, not analysed

Discrete manufacturing ERP SaaS 31-33

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Manufacturing, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Aircraft assemblers and aircraft assembly inspectors One industry 91.3%

Supervisors, assembly and fabrication One industry 88.3%

Machine operators and related workers in pulp and paper production and wood processing and manufacturing One industry 86.1%

Managers in manufacturing and utilities One industry 84.4%

Machine operators and related workers in chemical, plastic and rubber processing One industry 82.7%

Mechanical, electrical and electronics assemblers and inspectors One industry 82.3%

Machine operators and related workers in food, beverage and associated products processing One industry 79.1%

Machine operators and related workers in mineral and metal products processing and manufacturing One industry 77.7%

Furniture, wood, plastic and other products assemblers, finishers and inspectors One industry 73.9%

Machine operators and related workers in textile, fabric, fur and leather products processing and manufacturing One industry 70.8%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Other technical trades Across the economy 20%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 16.3%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 15.2%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 11.6%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 10.7%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 9.6%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 9.2%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 8.3%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 7.7%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 4.8%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

2 rows sit directly beneath 33341. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
333413	Industrial and commercial fan and blower and air purification equipment manufacturing	132	screened at 3334
333416	Heating equipment and commercial refrigeration equipment manufacturing	328	screened at 3334