Following a downtrend in April, Fastenal reported a sizable acceleration in May for daily sales growth year-over-year, while the company’s national and non-national accounts growth jumped month-over-month.

The Winona, MN-based distributor of industrial, safety and construction supplies shared its May sales information on June 5, which showed that the company reported a 26-month high in daily sales growth, with Fastenal’s Heavy Manufacturing , Other Manufacturing and Non-residential Construction segments reporting monthly gains.

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The Big Picture

• The May report showed that daily sales increased 9.3% year-over-year, jumping from April’s 6.5% increase. Total sales of $687.3 million also increased 4.3%, as May 2025 had one fewer selling day than a year earlier.
• Baird’s Equity Research Industrial Distribution team had forecasted a 10.9% increase in Fastenal’s daily sales growth during the month.
• A larger portion of Fastenal’s latest national customers saw daily sales growth vs April. Growth from non-national accounts increased month-over-month.
• S. daily sales growth accelerated month-over-month, as did sales in Canada/Mexico. The company’s other international sales continued to increase in April following a drastic gain from March to April.
• Daily sales growth continued in the company’s top-end markets of Heavy Manufacturing, Other Manufacturing and Non-residential Construction month-over-month. However, Non-residential Construction was the only top-end market to decline year-over-year. Meanwhile, Reseller declined slightly compared to April’s drastic gain, but increased year-over-year.

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“We believe ADS growth benefited from further tariff-driven pricing actions and one fewer day,” Baird said in an analyst note released on June 5. “With results slightly underperforming our days-adjusted benchmark, May could have reflected a very modest impact of demand destruction; however, results were seemingly in line with buyside expectations for closer to 9% growth. Compared to April, y/y growth in May was stronger both in overall terms and across most customer/product end markets.”

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. Following a 6.5% year-over-year increase in daily sales growth during April, May showed a considerable expansion. How much of the increase was due to volume vs. pricing impacts remains to be seen in the company’s 2Q25 fiscal report.

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Go Deeper

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

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

• United States – 83.2% of sales: +9.4% (+7.0% in April)
• Canada/Mexico – 13.7% of sales: +7.9% (+2.6% in April)
• Rest of World – 3.1% of sales: +14.3% (+10.7% in April)

May Daily Sales by Product Line:

• Fasteners – 30.7% of sales: +8.9% (+1.5% in April)
• Safety – 22.1% of sales: +10.4% (+9.8% in April)
• Other – 47.2% of sales: +9.2% (+8.3% in April)

May Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 42.9% of sales: +8.6% (+4.6% in April)
• Other manufacturing – 33.2% of sales: +12.8% (+9.7% in April)
• Non-residential construction – 8.0% of sales: +3.3% (+0.9% in April)
• Other – 15.9% of sales: +7.6% (+8.3% in April)

May Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• National accounts: +12.0% (+9.0% in April)
• 59.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (49.0% in April)
• Non-national accounts: +4.0% (+1.0% in April)
• 57.8% of in-market locations were growing (56.5% in April)
• FMI: +15.0% (+12.0% in April)
• eBusiness: +14.0% (+13.0% in April)

May Headcount

Fastenal ended May with a total headcount of 24,183, up 0.1% from April and up 2.0% year-over-year. Full-time selling headcount of 21,451 was up 0.8% from April and 1.7% year-over-year.