Winona, Minnesota-based Fastenal – No. 12 on Industrial Distribution's 2015 Big 50 List – reported its November sales on Friday, which included a year-over-year decline in sales for a third straight month.
The company posted total November sales of $298.2 million, a 4.1 percent increase over 2014. But 2015 had one more selling day than last year, making this November's daily sales of $14.9 million down 1.1 percent.
It was the fifth straight month that Fastenal had smaller daily sales than the year prior. June posted an 8.6 percent growth, followed by 3.2 percent growth in July, 1.6 percent growth in August, 0.3 percent decline in September, and 0.8 percent decline in October.
November's total sales were down 11.8 percent from October's $338.0 million.
Fastenal's sales to manufacturing customers fell 1.6 percent in November, and sales to nonresidential construction customers fell 5.1 percent.
The company's total store count didn't change from October, with its nationwide total of 2,626 up by 22 from last year.
Fastenal's total employee headcount net gained by 257 in November to 20,784, which is up 12.5 percent year-over-year. The bulk of the gain was in sales personnel, which went up by 204 to 13,102. Selling personnel at the end of November was up 11.6 percent from a year ago.
