Carrier Announces 2005 Carrier Distinguished Dealer (CDD) Award Recipeints

Carrier Honors and Awards Four Recipients in San Jose, CA

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Mar. 27, 2006 – Carrier Corporation, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), is pleased to announce its Carrier Distinguished Dealer (CDD) award recipients for 2005. After months of dealer preparation and extensive evaluation, four dealerships were selected from a field of 800 Carrier Factory Authorized Dealers and were honored at a formal ceremony held in San Jose, California, in conjunction with the 38th Indoor Air Expo & Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) Conference. The dealerships recognized exemplify Carrier's model for operational excellence, business effectiveness and outstanding performance.

"We have awarded a record number of four CDD award recipients this year, as they have demonstrated impressive abilities at achieving their business goals while delivering exceptional customer value, successfully positioning the Carrier brand in their respective markets," said Karie Johnson, Manager, Programs and Promotions, Carrier Residential.

The following four dealerships recognized as Carrier Distinguished Dealers this year join the many dealerships that Carrier has honored since 1994: Trade Winds Heating and Air Conditioning (Naperville, Ill.), Nunning HVAC, Inc. (Evansville, Ind.), Gross Heating and Air Conditioning (Brookfield, WI.), and Weather Engineers (Melbourne, Fla.).

"CDD winners will gain access to more of Carrier's programs and information. Moreover, they will able to take advantage of publicity, marketing and merchandising opportunities unique to Distinguished Dealers to help continue to shape, grow and succeed in their business," added Johnson.

Selection Criteria

In line with Carrier's brand strategy, the CDD selection criteria for 2005 focused on leadership, management, customer knowledge, brand recognition, industry expertise and operational excellence.

Business Tools

The primary purpose of the CDD program is to provide all Carrier dealers with an assessment process by which they can evaluate their business operation and identify improvement opportunities. The CDD program is not intended to prescribe specific business goals and conduct; rather it is designed to encourage self-analysis that may result in new ideas for building and refining best practices for success.

However, the program does enable Carrier to identify sound business practices and share them with other dealerships. In fact, receiving award recognition at the conclusion of the CDD process is actually the secondary advantage to participating. The primary advantage of the CDD program is that it enables dealerships to sustain their current business success while optimizing their opportunities for the future. The CDD self-assessment process allows dealers to achieve this by providing criteria in a business plan against which they can compare their operations. Additionally, all participants receive feedback that compares the dealers' ratings relative to other CDD applicants. For many dealerships, CDD gives reason to update or initiate a business plan by which future paths and goals can be planned and implemented.

"Overall, we are extremely impressed with the planning and detail that went into the development of the CDD business plans this year," said Johnson. "Our CDD participants were very receptive to our auditing and business suggestions. We were excited and encouraged to see that many dealerships were united and involved everyone on their team and not just business owners and managers."

Johnson continued, "We wanted to acknowledge and recognize these top-performing dealerships because each of them differentiated themselves by combining sound business practices with unique marketing strategies while being Carrier ambassadors." In addition to meeting and exceeding the stringent standards in the CDD evaluation process, she felt that each winner displayed great tenacity by withstanding a challenging site visit by Carrier management and an extensive audit of their dealership's business plan.

"While we honor these four CDD winners, we were very impressed with the high business and operational standards of all our CDD candidates. Looking into the future, we would like to continue to encourage all Carrier dealers to submit applications for the next 2006, as this will help them gain recognition within the industry, as well as help to develop and grow their operations," said Johnson.

About Carrier Corporation

Carrier Corporation is the world's largest manufacturer of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems and equipment. It is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), provider of a broad range of high–technology products and support services to the aerospace and building systems industries.