After Fastenal’s 2023 second-quarter sales growth and margin decelerated amid softer demand, its momentum continued to slow to start the third quater.

The Winona, Minnesota-based industrial and construction supplies distributor on Aug. 4 reported its July 2023 sales report, which showed net and daily sales were up 3.7% compared with the same period in 2022. Last month, the company reported that its 2Q 2023 sales were up 5.9% year-over-year. That was a sharp slowdown from 1Q’s 9.1% year-over-year sales growth seen and 9.6% sequential growth.

For July 2023, net sales totaled nearly $573.5 million, while daily sales came in at more than $28.6 million (over 20 business days). Daily sales of fasteners decreased 1.9% during the month.

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The company ended July with a total personnel count of 22,897, a 5.0% increase over the same month in 2022.

Other notes from Fastenal’s July 2023 sales report (figures compared to July 2022):

By geography:

• Daily sales in the U.S. grew 3.1% year-over-year
• Daily sales in Canada & Mexico grew 9.7%
• Daily sales to the rest of international decreased 4.5%

By end market:

• Daily sales to manufacturing customers grew 6.9%
• Daily sales to nonresidential construction customers decreased 9.5%

By product line:

• Daily sales of fasteners decreased 1.9%
• Daily sales of safety products grew 8.3%
• Daily sales of all other products grew 6.6%

By customer/channel type:

• Daily sales to national accounts grew 8.0% year-over-year
• Daily sales to non-national accounts decreased 2.0%
• 66.0% of Fastenal’s national accounts grew sales year-over-year
• 53.0% of Fastenal’s public branches grew sales year-over-year