Following a considerable deceleration in December, Fastenal reported a modest increase in January daily sales growth, as the company’s largest market, Heavy Manufacturing, saw a solid month-to-month gain and the company faced stiff weather headwinds.

The Winona, MN-based distributor of industrial, safety and construction supplies, shared its January sales information on Feb. 6, which showed that growth was driven by Fastenal’s Heavy Manufacturing segment as it improved 4.3-percentage-points compared to December.

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The Big Picture

• The January report showed that daily sales increased 1.9% year-over-year, accelerating from December’s flat 0.0% increase that was the company’s worst daily sales growth month since May 2021. Total sales of $654 million were likewise up 1.9% year-over-year.
• The company cited a 160 to 120 basis-point headwind from weather in January on daily sales, worse than the 120-150 bps headwind of a year earlier
• U.S. daily sales growth increased month-to-month, while Canada/Mexico likewise accelerated and the rest of the world declined drastically, following a solid gain in December
• 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 greater portion of Fastenal’s largest national account customers saw daily sales growth vs. December. Likewise, a slightly bigger portion of in-market locations had growth in January. Growth from non-national accounts decelerated from December.

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 3.5-year lowpoint for daily sales growth in December, Fastenal’s slight acceleration was a nice monthly rebound and suggests that demand is improving and steadying in 1Q25. With even slightly better weather, January growth likely would have been closer to 3%.

Fastenal 2024 Sales Totaled $7.5B as Margin Flattened (Jan. 17)

Go Deeper

Here’s the breakdown of Fastenal’s January 2025 sales report and how each metric compared with December:

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

• United States – 83.0% of sales: +1.7% (0.0% in Dec.)
• Canada/Mexico – 14.1% of sales: 5.9% (+0.6% in Dec.)
• Rest of World – 2.9% of sales: -8.8% (-2.6% in Dec.)

January Daily Sales by Product Line:

• Fasteners – 30.1% of sales: -1.7% (+2.2% in Dec.)
• Safety – 22.8% of sales: +3.7% (+3.0% in Dec.)
• Other – 47.1% of sales: +3.5% (+1.6% in Dec.)

January Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 43.1% of sales: +1.8% (-2.6% in Dec.)
• Other manufacturing – 33.1% of sales: +6.7% (+4.4% in Dec.)
• Non-residential construction – 7.8% of sales: -3.6% (-5.7% in Dec.)
• Reseller – 4.4% of sales: -20.0% (-8.3% in Dec.)
• Other – 11.6% of sales: +4.5% (+6.9% in Dec.)

January Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• National accounts: +4.0% (+1.0% in Dec.)
• 58.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (45.0% in Dec.)
• Non-national accounts: -2.0% (-1.0% in Dec.)
• 49.4% of in-market locations were growing (46.6% in Dec.)
• FMI: +7.0% (+8.0% in Dec.)
• eBusiness: +8.0% (+28.0% in Dec.)

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January Headcount:

Fastenal ended January with a total headcount of 23,798, up 0.4% from December and up 1.8% year-over-year. Full-time selling headcount of 15,076 was up 0.4% from December and likewise up 1.0% year-over-year.