Fastenal Co. (Nasdaq: FAST), Winona, Minnesota, reported first-quarter sales of $1.4 billion, a 3.7% increase compared with same period a year ago. Quarterly profit was $210.6 million, also a 3.7% increase compared to the year-ago period.

Fastenal said 1Q growth was “largely due to higher unit sales, most notably of fastener, safety, and janitorial products. Growth in fastener products reflected further improvement in demand among traditional industrial and construction customers and an easy comparison with respect to March 2021, which came against a year earlier period that experienced the onset of pandemic-related weakness and a contraction in fastener product growth.

“Growth in safety products reflected continued improvement in demand among traditional industrial and construction customers as well as sales to new customers that had not purchased safety products from Fastenal prior to the pandemic. Growth in our other products lines primarily reflected good demand for janitorial products, driven by similar variables experienced for our safety products. These favorable factors were partly offset by severe weather in February 2021, which we believe reduced net and daily sales growth by 50 to 100 basis points in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2020.”

March sales increased 12.4% to $531.4 million over the year-ago period. The company reported daily sales of $23.1 million, up 7.5% versus a year ago.