Industrial and construction supplies distributor Fastenal reported its January sales results on Feb. 5, which reflected continued — and accelerated gains — both month-to-month and year-over-year, including strong improvement for the company’s largest accounts. That’s in spite of a notable winter weather headwind.

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 January total sales of $697 million — up 6.9% year-over-year, with daily sales up 12.0%. That daily sales figure growth was the company’s best since July (12.8%) and its seventh-straight month in double-figures. It also topped the estimate of 11.2% from Baird’s Industrial Distribution Equity Research unit.
• The company noted that weather dragged on January’s daily sales by 220 to 270 basis points (160-210 a year earlier), while currency had a +70-point impact. So, net of weather and currency, daily sales would’ve been approximately +13.8%.
• Daily sales growth accelerated month-over-month across all geographies, and substantially so outside of North America
• Sales modestly decelerated MoM in Fastenal’s two largest end markets — heavy manufacturing and other manufacturing —  but accelerated considerably in nonresidential construction and other
• 74% of Fastenal’s top 100 national accounts recorded growth in January — the best such mark since April 2023 — and well ahead of the 58% of January 2025

MDM Case Study: Fastenal (Premium access here) 

“Overall, a solid month, consistent with recent reads from our FDI survey, other industrial earnings reports/outlooks, January’s 52.6 ISM (PMI) and company-specific pricing and share gain momentum amid organizational and strategic changes,” Baird wrote in an analyst note.

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 November’s report showing sustained strong daily sales growth entering the final month of the year across each of the company’s three broad product categories, it indicates lasting momentum for Fastenal heading into 2026.

Go Deeper

Here’s the breakdown of Fastenal’s January 2026 sales report and how each metric compared with December 2025:

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

• United States – 82.1% of sales: +10.8% (+10.2% in Dec.)
• Canada/Mexico – 14.2% of sales: +13.2% (+11.5% in Dec.)
• Rest of World – 3.7% of sales: +39.5% (+19.9% in Dec.)

January Daily Sales by Customer Usage:

• Total Direct Materials – 38.7% of sales: +12.9%
  • Direct fasteners/hardware – 20.9% of sales: +13.4%
  • Direct cutting tools & abrasives – 5.1% of sales: +10.2%
  • Direct non-fasteners/hardware – 12.7% of sales: +13.3%
• Total Indirect Materials – 61.3% of sales: +11.4%
  • Indirect fasteners/hardware – 9.8% of sales: +15.4%
  • Indirect safety – 21.3% of sales: +9.4%
  • Indirect non-fasteners/hardware & non-safety  – 30.2% of sales: +11.5%

January Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 43.6% of sales: +13.2% (+14.4% in Dec.)
• Other manufacturing – 32.7% of sales: +10.5% (+13.3% in Dec.)
• Non-residential construction – 8.1% of sales: +16.2% (+10.8% in Dec.)
• Other – 15.6% of sales: +9.0% (-1.5% in Dec.)

January Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• Contract customers: +14.0% (+13.0% in Dec.)
• 74.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (66.0% in Dec.)
• Non-contract customers: +6.0% (+4.0% in Dec.)
• 63.7% of in-market locations were growing (64.2% in Dec.)
• FMI: +16.0% (+16.0% in Dec.)
• eBusiness: +7.0% (+7.0% in Dec.)

January Headcount

Fastenal ended January with a total headcount of 24,525 — down 0.1% from December and up 3.1% year-over-year. Full-time selling personnel headcount ended January at 15,409 — down 0.2%  vs. December and up 3.1% year-over-year.