Winona, MN-based Fastenal — No. 7 on Industrial Distribution's Big 50 List — reported its January sales information on Tuesday, led by continued strong year-over-year sales growth, though daily sales growth was at a slower pace than in previous recent months.
Fastenal posted total January sales of $394.4 million, up 17.4 percent year-over-year, while daily sales increased 12.0 percent. That daily sales increase was at least 0.8 percentage points slower than the previous seven months, but still the eighth straight month with at least 12.0 percent growth.
Here's how Fastenal's monthly daily sales year-over-year growth has fared since the start of 2015:
|
|
Jan. |
Feb. |
Mar. |
Apr. |
May |
June |
July |
Aug. |
Sept. |
Oct. |
Nov. |
Dec. |
| 2018 | 12.0 | |||||||||||
|
2017 |
3.8 |
6.1 |
8.4 |
8.9 |
9.7 |
13.0 |
12.9 |
12.8 |
15.3 |
13.8 |
15.4 |
14.7 |
|
2016 |
3.3 |
2.6 |
0.0 |
3.8 |
1.1 |
0.0 |
2.1 |
0.3 |
2.8 |
3.9 |
1.2 |
3.2 |
|
2015 |
12.0 |
8.6 |
5.6 |
6.1 |
5.3 |
3.7 |
3.2 |
1.6 |
-0.3 |
-0.8 |
-1.1 |
-3.8 |
Fastenal's January daily sales increased 10.5 percent in the U.S. and 11.6 percent throughout North America.
By end market, January sales to manufacturing customers grew 13.3 percent, compared to 16.2 percent in December. Sales to non-residential construction customers grew 7.9 percent, compared to 11.9 percent in December.
By product line, January fasteners sales grew 10.1 percent, compared to 14.0 percent in December. Sales of other products grew 13.7 percent in January, compared to 15.5 percent in December.
Unlike previous monthly reports, Fastenal's January report did not include breakout statistics for number of branches opened or total branch count. In the company's Q4 and full year 2017 earnings report posted Jan. 17, the company had opened three branches in Q4 and closed 37, with its total public branch count at 2,383 at the end of the year.
Fastenal ended January with a total company headcount of 20,565, up 4.8 percent YoY. Branch and Onsite personnel count of 11,549 was up 7.0 percent, while total selling personnel of 13,225 was up 7.3 percent.
On Jan. 25, Fastenal posted a pair of short videos on its YouTube channel promoting its local Blue Teams. With the lead-up to the Super Bowl in-mind, Fastenal presents a local Blue Team in a football starting lineup announcement format. Check out the videos below:
