Fastenal reported its January sales results on Feb. 4, with the results showing a strong start to the year for the distributor as resurgent safety sales buoyed already accelerating sales of the company's core product lines.
The Winona, MN-based company — No. 4 on Industrial Distribution's 2021 Big 50 List — posted total January sales of $540.5 million, up 20.7 percent year-over-year, with daily sales up 14.9 percent. Total sales were up 13.5 percent from December, which had one less selling day than January, with daily sales up 8.1 percent month-to-month.
READ MORE: Fastenal Likely to Close About 300 More Branches as it 'Rationalizes' Footprint - published Jan. 31
By product line in January:
- After spiking throughout 2020 and then falling throughout 2021, daily sales of safety products jumped 12.9% year-over-year in January. It followed 7.2% growth in December — showing a recent resurgence in safety sales as no other month since March 2021 had topped 3.2% growth in that product category.
- Daily sales of all other products grew 11.0 percent year-over-year, in line with December's 14.4% growth and November's 11.7%.
By end market in January:
- Daily sales to manufacturing customers grew 20.8% year-over-year, following December's 25.8% and November's 22.6%.
- Daily sales to non-residential construction customers grew 12.9% year-over-year, following December's 13.5% and November's 16.6%.
By geography in January
- Daily sales in the United States grew 14.9% year-over-year, trailing December 15.4%.
- Daily sales in Canada/Mexico grew 14.6% year-over-year, trailing December's 22.1%.
- Daily sales to the rest of international 15.8% year-over-year, trailing December's 25.6%.
By customer/channel type in January
- Daily sales in national accounts grew 19.0%, trailing December's 23.0%
- Daily sales in non-national accounts grew 10.0%, outpacing December's 9.0%
- 85.0% of Fastenal's top 100 national accounts grew in January, following 87.0% in December.
- 73.4% of Fastenal's public branches grew in January, topping December's 71.0%.
Headcount
- Fastenal ended January with a total headcount of 20,728, 1.1% from December and up 1.3% year-over-year.
- Fastenal ended January with 13,603 total selling personnel, up 1.4% from December and up 1.9% year-over-year. Fastenal ended January with 2,171 total in-market selling personnel, up 4.6% from December and up 10.9% year-over-year.
Fastenal reported its 2021 fourth quarter and full year financial results on Jan. 19, led by sales of $1.53 billion that were up 12.8 percent year-over-year and up 14.6 percent on a daily sales basis, while operating profit of $301 million increased 13.8 percent on margin of 19.6 percent and total profit of $231 million jumped 17.9 percent. Total 2021 sales of $6.01 billion increased 6.4 percent over 2020, with daily sales up 7.3 percent. 2021 operating profit of $1.22 billion increased 6.6 percent at margin of 20.3 percent, while net profit of $925 million improved 7.7 percent vs. 2020.
