Weather Drags on Fastenal’s January Sales

Less than three weeks after reporting its 2023 fourth quarter and full-year financial results, Fastenal shared its January sales report, showing a considerable step down in the distributor’s monthly growth rate.

Fastenal reported January total sales of $640 million, up 6.4% year-over-year, but up just 1.6% on a daily sales basis, as the month had an additional business day vs. 2023, while weather had an estimated -1.2% to -1.5% impact. It was a deceleration from December’s 5.3% daily sales growth.

Excluding that weather impact, Fastenal’s January daily sales growth would have been in line or slightly better than its 5-year benchmark average.

Overall, the Winona, MN-based company saw further sequential slowing in non-residential construction and fastener sales, which is consistent with the sentiment of a still soft industrial economy from other distributors and manufacturers. 

Find Fastenal’s detailed January performance breakdown below.

Daily sales growth by geography:

• U.S. (84.0% of total) grew 4.8% year-over-year (+0.7% in December)
• Canada/Mexico (12.6% of total) grew 9.4% YoY (+4.8% in Dec.)
• Rest of World (3.3% of total) grew 12.9% YoY (+1.3% in Dec.)

Daily sales growth by end market:

• Heavy manufacturing (43.2% of total) grew 3.3% YoY (+5.7% in Dec.)
• Other manufacturing (31.6% of total) grew 0.7% YoY (+4.6% in Dec.)
• Non-residential construction (8.3% of total) fell 8.6% YoY (-5.5% in Dec.)
• Reseller (5.7% of total) fell 6.9% YoY (-6.9% in Dec.)
• Other (11.2% of toral) grew 10.7% YoY (+21.0-% in Dec.)

Daily sales growth by product line:

• Fasteners (31.2% of total) fell 6.0% YoY (-1.9% in Dec.)
• Safety (22.4% of total) grew 9.7% YoY (+11.2% in Dec.)
• Other (46.4% of total) grew 3.3% YoY (+6.4% in Dec.)

Growth metrics by customer/channel type:

• 60.0% of Top 100 national accounts grew in January YoY, down from 68.0% in December
• 49.1% of in-market locations grew in January YoY, down from 53.4% in December
• National account daily sales grew 6.0% in January YoY, down from 11.0% in December
• Non-national account daily sales fell 6.0% in January YoY, compared to -3% in December
• Fastenal Managed Inventory sales grew 8.0% in January YoY, down from 11.0% in December
• eProcurement sales grew 23.0% in January YoY, down from 28.0% in December

Headcount

• Fastenal ended January with a total headcount of 23,380, up 3.6% YoY and up 0.8% from December. Its full-time sales personnel headcount ended January at 14,971, up 2.1% YoY and down 0.7% from December.

On MDM’s 2023 Top Distributors Lists, Fastenal was No. 6 for Industrial, No. 4 for MRO, No. 7 for Fluid Power and No. 1 for Fasteners. The company posted 2023 total sales of $7.35 billion, up 5.2% vs. 2022.

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