Following a deceleration in October daily sales growth, Fastenal bounced back in November, with sales accelerating to achieve the company’s highest monthly growth percentage of the year.

The Winona, MN-based distributor of industrial, safety and construction supplies shared its November sales information on Dec. 5, which showed that growth was predominantly driven by gains from its core manufacturing customers and in its namesake fastener products.

The Big Picture

• The November report showed that daily sales increased 3.4% year-over-year, accelerating from October’s 2.8%. It was the company’s best month of 2024, topping June’s 3.3%, and its best month since December 2023’s 5.3% (which still had a considerable inflation tailwind). Overall, Fastenal posted November total sales of $590 million that were down 1.5% year-over-year, impacted by one less selling day vs. a year earlier.
• U.S. daily sales growth held steady month-to-month, while Canada/Mexico and the rest of international accelerated.
• Daily sales growth continued in the company’s top two end markets of Heavy Manufacturing and Other Manufacturing, but continued to decelerate in Non-Residential Construction and Reseller.
• A slightly smaller portion of Fastenal’s largest national account customers saw daily sales growth vs. October. Likewise, a smaller portion of in-market locations had growth in November. Growth from non-national accounts decelerated from October.

Fastenal’s November daily sales growth also matched the forecast from Baird Equity Research’s Industrial Distribution unit.

MDM’s Take

Fastenal is the only publicly-traded industrial distributor that shares a monthly sales report, making it a good barometer for the overall health and demand status for the markets it serves. After a deceleration in October, Fastenal's November acceleration and best-of-the-year growth was a nice monthyl rebound and suggests that demand is improving and steadying here in 4Q24, though still relatively soft compared to 2022-2023.

Go Deeper

Here’s the breakdown of Fastenal’s November 2024 sales report and how each metric compared with October:

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

• United States – 81.3% of sales: +2.3% (+2.3% in Oct.)
• Canada/Mexico – 15.2% of sales: +8.7% (+4.2% in Oct.)
• Rest of World – 3.5% of sales: +6.4% (+9.2% in Oct.)

November Daily Sales by Product Line:

• Fasteners – 29.8% of sales: +0.1% (-2.0% in Oct.)
• Safety – 23.2% of sales: +5.5% (+5.8% in Oct.)
• Other – 47.0% of sales: +5.3% (+5.1% in Oct.)

November Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 42.6% of sales: +4.1% (+3.1% in Oct.)
• Other manufacturing – 32.0% of sales: +7.1% (+4.9% in Oct.)
• Non-residential construction – 8.3% of sales: -1.7% (-4.9% in Oct.)
• Reseller – 4.7% of sales: -15.1% (-10.1% in Oct.)
• Other – 12.4% of sales: +6.4% (+9.4% in Oct.)

November Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• National accounts: +6.0% (+5.0% in Oct.)
• 59.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (61.0% in Oct.)
• Non-national accounts: -1.0% (+5.0% in Oct.)
• 49.3% of in-market locations were growing (49.7% in Oct.)
• FMI: +10.0% (+7.0% in Oct.)
• eBusiness: +28.0% (+27.0% in Oct.)

November Headcount

Fastenal ended November with a total headcount of 23,651, up 0.04% from October and up 2.0% year-over-year. Full-time selling headcount of 14,954 was down 0.5% from October and up 0.9% year-over-year.