Fastenal's Sales Rebounded in January

Industrial supplies distributor Fastenal reported its January sales on Feb. 6, revealing that the Winona, Minnesota-based company bounced back after a December that saw slower sales growth.

Fastenal posted January sales of approximately $601 million, up 11.2% year-over-year, with daily sales up by the same amount. Sequentially, it was a significant improvement over Fastenal’s $514 million sales and 8% year-over-year growth in December. The 8% daily sales mark in December represented Fastenal’s smallest growth rate since June 2021 (1.7%).

Fastenal ranked as the No. 2 Fastener Distributor, No. 5 MRO Distributor and No. 7 Industrial Distributor on MDM’s 2022 Top Distributors list.

The company reported that January daily sales to manufacturing customers increased 17% year-over-year (13.4% in December). Meanwhile, nonresidential construction sales declined for a third straight month, falling 1.7% in January.

By product line, January daily sales of fasteners increased 11.6% (6.1% in December), safety sales increased 6.2% (7.7% in December), and all other product lines grew a combined 14.1% (9.9% in December).

By geography, Fastenal’s January daily sales increased 11.2% in the U.S. (8.4% in December), grew 17.3% in Canada and Mexico (12.9% in December), and declined 8.5% in the rest of international (-13.6% in December).

Fastenal also reported its employee headcount at the end of January. The distributor currently employs 22,566 total personnel, a 0.8% increase since December and up 8.9% from January 2022. Fastenal’s total selling personnel of 14,660 is up 1.3% from December and 7.8% from January 2022.