Industrial and construction supplies distributor Fastenal reported its February sales results on March 5, which reflected continued — and accelerated gains — both month-to-month and year-over-year, despite a lower portion of national accounts seeing growth vs. a month earlier. 

On MDM’s 2025 Top Distributors Lists, Fastenal charted at No. 1 for Fasteners, No. 2 for Safety, No. 4 for Industrial Supplies, No. 5 for Industrial MRO and No. 7 for Fluid Power.

Florness to Step Down as Fastenal CEO in July (Dec. 22)

The Big Picture

• Fastenal posted February total sales of $711 million — up 13.3% year-over-year both overall and on a daily sales basis. That daily sales figure growth was the company’s best since October 2022 (13.8%) during the height of post-COVID-19 inflation. It was the company’s eighth-straight month in double-figures for daily sales growth. It considerably topped the estimate of 10.8% from Baird’s Industrial Distribution Equity Research unit and was the first time February’s sales dollars total exceeded January’s since 2016, per Baird.
• Daily sales growth accelerated month-over-month in the U.S. and Canada/Mexico, and decelerated outside of North America
• Sales accelerated considerably month-over-month in Fastenal’s largest end market — heavy manufacturing held mostly steady in its second-largest market of Other Manufacturing and had a healthy acceleration in both Nonresidential Construction and all other end markets
• 67% of Fastenal’s top 100 national accounts recorded growth in February — down from 74% in January

MDM Case Study: Fastenal (Premium access here) 

“Overall, a solid month (strongest beat versus normal seasonality/benchmark since March 2019, ex-Covid 2020-21 years), consistent with recent reads from our FDI survey, other industrial earnings reports/outlooks, February’s 52.4 ISM and continued price/market/outgrowth gains amid organizational and strategic changes,” Baird wrote in an analyst note regarding Fastenal’s February report.

MDM’s Analysis

Fastenal tapped former Beko Europe CFO Max Tunnicliff to the same position effective Nov. 10, and each monthly sales report since and the company’s 4Q25 results have reflected a nice start to his tenure. Fastenal is the only publicly traded industrial distributor that shares a monthly sales report, which can make it a good barometer for the overall health and demand status for the industrial supplies/MRO/construction markets it serves. 

However, much of the company’s recent growth should be viewed as Fastenal-specific rather than illustrating underlying demand momentum, given the company’s recent pricing actions and broader business strategy. In its Q4 financials, the company noted a pricing impact that grew 310-340 bps year-over-year — up from the 240-270 bps impact in 3Q — as it maintains cost neutrality year-to-date and that pricing actions continue in 1Q26.

With February’s report showing sustained strong daily sales growth across each of the company’s three broad product categories, it indicates lasting momentum for Fastenal for at least the first half of 2026 against a modestly improving industrial demand environment.

Go Deeper

Here’s the breakdown of Fastenal’s February 2026 sales report and how each metric compared with January (in parentheses):

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

• United States – 82.8% of sales: +12.7% (+10.8% in Jan)
• Canada/Mexico – 13.8% of sales: +14.4% (+13.2%)
• Rest of World – 3.4% of sales: +25.5% (+39.5%)

February Daily Sales by Customer Usage:

• Total Direct Materials – 39.0% of sales: +13.4% (+12.9% in Jan)
  • Direct fasteners/hardware – 20.8% of sales: +13.5% (+13.4%)
  • Direct cutting tools & abrasives – 5.2% of sales: +13.0% (+10.2%)
  • Direct non-fasteners/hardware – 13.0% of sales: +13.4% (+13.3%)
• Total Indirect Materials – 61.0% of sales: +13.6% (+11.4%)
  • Indirect fasteners/hardware – 10.0% of sales: +20.6% (+15.4%)
  • Indirect safety – 20.9% of sales: +13.0% (+9.4% in Jan)
  • Indirect non-fasteners/hardware & non-safety – 30.1% of sales: +11.9% (+11.5%)

February Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 44.1% of sales: +14.9% (+14.4% in Jan)
• Other manufacturing – 32.3% of sales: +10.2% (+13.3%)
• Non-residential construction – 8.1% of sales: +19.9% (+10.8%)
• Other – 15.5% of sales: +12.2% (-1.5%)

February Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• Contract customers: +15.0% (+13.0% in Jan)
• 67.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (66.0% )
• Non-contract customers: +8.0% (+4.0%)
• 66.2% of in-market locations were growing (64.2%)
• FMI: +17.0% (+16.0%)
• eBusiness: +8.0% (+7.0%)

February Headcount

Fastenal ended February with a total headcount of 24,649 — up 0.5% from January and up 2.6% year-over-year. Full-time selling personnel headcount ended February at 15,452 — up 0.3% vs. January and up 1.9% year-over-year.