Industrial and construction supplies distributor Fastenal reported its July 2024 sales figures on Aug. 6, showing continued declines in daily sales growth that reached their lowest in more than 3 years. Sales growth slowed month-to-month in all geographies, product segments and customer end markets.

The Winona, MN-based company posted total July sales of $633.8 million, which was up 10.5% year-over-year — boosted by two additional selling days vs. July 2023. On a daily sales basis, July was up just 0.5% year-over-year, which was the weakest such figure since May 2021 when it bottomed out at a 3.2% decrease as the pandemic sunk industrial demand industry-wide.

Here’s the breakdown of Fastenal’s July sales report:

July Daily Sales by Geography, Year-Over-Year:

• United States – 82.9% of sales: +0.1% (+2.8% in June)
• Canada/Mexico – 14.0% of sales: +2.8% (+5.3% in June)
• Rest of World – 3.1% of sales: +0.3% (+7.6% in June)

July Daily Sales by Product Line:

• Fasteners – 30.2% of sales: -6.3% (-2.7% in June)
• Safety – 22.9% of sales: +7.5% (+9.0% in June)
• Other – 46.9% of sales: +1.6% (+4.9% in June)

July Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 42.6% of sales: -1.0% (+2.2% in June)
• Other manufacturing – 32.6% of sales: +4.5% (+7.1% in June)
• Non-residential construction – 8.6% of sales: -4.6% (-4.6% in June)
• Reseller – 5.1% of sales: -14.9% (-8.6% in June)
• Other – 11.1% of sales: +5.4% (+9.6% in June)

July Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• National accounts: +4.0% (+8.0% in June)
• 48.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (59.0% in June)
• Non-national accounts: -6.0% (-3.0% in June)
• 46.5% of in-market locations were growing (51.1% in June)
• FMI: +7.0% (+9.0% in June)
• eBusiness: +27.0% (+26.0% in June)

July Headcount

Fastenal ended July with a total headcount of 23,625, flat compared to June and up 3.2% year-over-year. Full-time selling headcount ended July at 15,196, down 1.2% from June and up 2.1% year-over-year.

Other Notes

On MDM's 2024 Top Distributors Lists, Fastenal was No. 6 for Industrial Supplies, No. 5 for MRO, No. 1 for Fasteners, No. 2 for Safety, No. 10 for JanSan/Packaging/Disposables, No. 7 for Fluid Power and No. 22 for Electrical.

Fastenal also reported its 2Q24 financials on July 12, which showed total quarterly sales of $1.92 billion that were up 1.8% year-over-year — its weakest since 2Q21’s 0.1% decline and a sequential decline from 1Q’s 1.9% growth. Gross margin of 45.3% fell 30 basis points year-over-year (-20 bps from 1Q), while net profit of $293 million was down 1.8% year-over-year and down 1.7% sequentially.

On July 12, Fastenal announced the promotion of its Chief Sales Officer and 28-year company veteran Jeff Watts to President, effective Aug. 1. The president position was vacated by Dan Florness, who continues in his role as CEO and board member. Watts also retains his CSO role.

Fastenal was featured in MDM’s recent “Big Pivot” Case study, which was published in December 2023 and is available here in the MDM Store.