It was another deceleration as daily sales declined sequentially vs. March in all three of the company’s geographies and product lines.

Fastenal 1Q earnings

Industrial and construction supplies distributor Fastenal shared its monthly sales report on May 6, showing the company’s smallest year-over-year daily sales gain since May of 2021. It came against tough comparables, as many industrial distributors were still seeing pricing-inflated substantial gains in the spring of 2023.

Fastenal posted total April 2024 sales of $649 million, up 10.% year-over-year, but with two additional selling days vs. a year earlier. On a daily basis, sales were up just 0.7%. It was a further deceleration from March’s 1.8% and February’s 2.6% and the distributor’s weakest daily sales gain since May of 2021 (-3.2%).

Daily sales declined sequentially vs. March in all three of the company’s geographies and product lines.

Here’s a look at how Fastenal’s year-over-year daily sales growth has fared per month since the start of 2021. Hover over the chart line for the interactive figures.

Source: Fastenal monthly sales reports

Find other key details from Fastenal’s April 2024 sales report below:

Daily Sales by Geography, Year-Over-Year:

  • United States — 83.3% of sales: 0.0% (+1.0% in March)
  • Canada/Mexico — 13.7% of sales: +5.7% (+5.0% in March)
  • Rest of World — 3.0% of sales: -3.2% (+9.6% in March)

Daily Sales by Product Line:

  • Fasteners — 31.6% of sales: -2.2% (-3.7% in March)
  • Safety — 21.2% of sales: +5.1% (+6.8% in March)
  • Other — 47.2% of sales: +1.2% (+3.8% in March)

Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

  • Heavy manufacturing — 43.4% of sales: +1.9% (+2.0% in March)
  • Other manufacturing — 32.2% of sales: +2.2% (+3.4% in March
  • Non-residential construction — 8.7% of sales: -5.6% (-7.4% in March)
  • Reseller — 5.5% of sales: -3.9% (+2.6% in March)
  • Other — 10.2% of sales: +1.2% (+2.6% in March)

Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

  • National accounts: +4.0% in April (+6.0% in March)
    • 61.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing in April (58.0% in March)
  • 48.9% of in-market locations were growing in April (50.1% in March)
  • Non-national accounts: -4.0% (-4.0% in March)
  • FMI: +6.0% (+6.0% in March)
  • eProcurement: +26.0% (+30.0% in March)

Other Notes

  • Fastenal ended April with a total headcount of 23,725 — up 4.0% year-over-year and essentially flat vs. March. Its 15,201 selling personnel at the end of April were up 3.2% year-over-year and up 0.7% vs. March.

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Mike Hockett

Mike Hockett

Mike Hockett is MDM’s executive editor, having joined the publication in March 2022. He oversees MDM’s editorial content and direction, coordinates with contributing authors, conducts interviews with executives in the wholesale distribution space and serves as the editorial face of MDM at industry events. He has extensively covered the distribution and manufacturing sectors since 2014. Hockett works from his home in Madison, WI. He can be contacted at mike@mdm.com.

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