October Was Fastenal's Best Month Of 2016 For Daily Sales Growth

Along with the daily sales growth, Fastenal added three stores during October after its total store count decreased by 65 in September.

Id 24121 Fastenal 23

Fastenal — No. 10 on Industrial Distribution's 2016 Big 50 List — reported its October sales results on Friday, led by a 3.9 percent year-over-year increase in daily sales.

The Winona, MN-based company posted October sales of $335.3 million, down 0.8 percent overall from a year earlier, but October 2015 had an additional selling day.

The daily sales increase was Fastenal's best month of 2016, and ahead of September's growth of 2.8 percent. That makes for eight months of daily sales growth out of 10 months in 2016, with the other two being flat.

Here's how the past 13 months of Fastenal's daily sales growth has been:

  • October 2016: +3.9 percent
  • September 2016: +2.8 percent
  • August 2016: +0.3 percent
  • July 2016: +2.1 percent
  • June 2016: 0.0 percent
  • May 2016: +1.1 percent
  • April 2016: +3.8 percent
  • March 2016: 0.0 percent
  • February 2016: +2.6 percent
  • January 2016: +3.3 percent
  • December 2015: -3.8 percent
  • November 2015: -1.1 percent
  • October 2015: -0.8 percent

Fastenal's October sales to manufacturing customers grew by 3.6 percent year-over-year, while sales to non-residential construction customers grew by 0.4 percent. Those figures compare with declines of 0.7 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively, in October 2015.

October daily sales of fasteners declined by 0.2 percent year-over-year, while other sales grew by 6.4 percent. Those figures compare with October 2015's decline of 6.0 for Fasteners and 3.1 percent growth of 3.1 percent.

Fastenal opened three stores during October and closed none, bringing its total store count to 2,548. That follows the company's count falling by 65 during September. Fastenal has opened 38 stores so far in 2016.

Fastenal net added 148 selling personnel in October, raising its total count to 12,577.

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