Fastenal reported its November sales information on Dec. 6, showing that while sales growth accelerated during the month, it remained in low single-digits — which is where most of the industry supply sector is expected to be in 2023’s fourth quarter and throughout 2024.

The distributor posted November total sales of $600 million, which was up 3.8% year-over-year, with daily sales up that same amount.

That daily sales figure doubled that of October’s 1.9% growth, which at the time was a recent low point following September’s 5.0% and August’s 3.6%.

“However, given weather swings/holidays/seasonality, November/December daily sales are notoriously volatile, so we’d caution against reading too much into one month,” noted Baird’s Industrial Distribution Equity Research division.

The following a is a breakdown of the other sales metrics Fastenal provided in its November report:

By geography in November:

• Daily sales in the U.S. (82.2% of total) grew 3.1% year-over-year, compared to 1% in October and 10.5% in November 2022.
• Daily sales in Canada & Mexico (14.5% of total) of grew 8.6% year-over-year, compared to 8.2% in October and 15.3% in November 2022.
• Daily sales to the rest of international (3.3% of total) grew 2.3% grew year-over-year, compared to 0.4% in October and -10.1% in November 2022.

By end market in November:

• Daily sales to heavy manufacturing customers (42.5% of total) grew 5.5% year-over-year, compared to 5.6% in October and 18.2% in November 2022.
• Daily sales to other manufacturing customers (31.0% of total) grew 3.2% year-over-year, compared to 1.9% in October and 11.7% in November 2022.
• Daily sales to Non-residential construction customers (8.7% of total) fell 8.2% year-over-year, compared to an 8.8% decline in October and a 0.9% decline in November 2022.
• Daily sales to reseller customers (5.7% of total) fell 4.6% year-over-year, compared to a 12.0% decline in October and a 3.3% decline in November 2022.
• Daily sales to other end markets (12.1% of total) increased 14.6% year-over-year, compared to a 6.1% increase in October and a 0.5% increase in November 2022.

By product line in November:

• Daily sales of fasteners (30.9% of total) declined 3.0% year-over-year, compared to a 2.6% decline in October and an 8.7% increase in November 2022.
• Daily sales of safety products (22.8% of total) increased 10.8% year-over-year, compared to a 6.4% increase in October and a 9.6% increase in November 2022.
• Daily sales of all other products (46.3% of total) increased 5.8% year-over-year, compared to a 3.3% increase in October and a 12.0% increase in November 2022.

By customer/channel type in November:

• 57.0% of Fastenal’s top 100 national accounts grew in November, compared to 52.0% in October and 75.0% in November 2022.
• 52.1% of Fastenal’s in-market locations grew in November, compared to 50.9% in October and 61.5% in November 2022.
• Daily sales to national accounts grew 9.0%, compared to 6.0% in October and 14.0% in November 2022.
• Daily sales to non-national accounts declined 3.0% year-over-year, compared to a 4.0% decline in October and a 6.0% increase in November 2022.
• Daily sales growth from Fastenal Managed Inventory (FMI) increased 10.0% year-over-year, compared to 12.0% in October and 23.0% in November 2022.
• Daily sales growth from eProcurement (EDI and eCommerce) increased 29.0% year-over-year, compared to 28.0% in October and 48.0% in November 2022.

“Non-residential construction and fastener sales remain lower (year-over-year), which we view as consistent with a still soft industrial economy,” Baird noted for Fastenal.

Looking forward, Baird said it models Fastenal’s December sales at up 4.0% year-over-year, which is in line with normal seasonality/benchmark growth.

Headcount

Fastenal ended November with a total headcount of 23,204 — up 3.7% year-over-year and up 0.5% from October. Of that, 14,827 were full-time selling personnel, up 2.3% year-over-year.

Fastenal ended the month with 14,845 personnel, a 2.9% increase over the same period a year ago.

Much More From Fastenal

Fastenal has been prominently featured on MDM over the past month. This including a three-part investigative article series from Dorn Group’s John Gunderson on the “Big Pivot” Fastenal has made over the past decade from a distributor primarily focused on a branch-heavy supply chain network to one that leverages data analytics alongside its robust vending capabilities and moving ever-closer to its customers.

Find that three-part series below:

• Part 1: How Fastenal Made the ‘Big Pivot’ that Paid Big Dividends
• Part 2: Sales Specialization & Realignment
• Part 3: Investments, Line Expansions & Digital Growth

Fastenal CFO Holden Lewis was featured in our Dec. 6 virtual Data Analytics Summit, where he shared insights the success formula and the metrics/analytics culture required to out-perform the market like Fastenal has. You can check out the summit on-demand here.