Following a drastic increase in March, Fastenal reported a notable deceleration in April for daily sales growth, as the company’s national accounts growth slid month-to-month.

The Winona, MN-based distributor of industrial, safety and construction supplies shared its April sales information on May 6, which showed that despite reporting its second-best monthly daily sales growth since April 2023, Fastenal’s Heavy Manufacturing and Other Manufacturing segments likewise slid compared to March.

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The Big Picture

• The April report showed that daily sales increased 6.5% year-over-year, decelerating from March’s 8.3% increase which was its best in two years. Total sales of $691 million also increased 6.5% year-over-year.
• A considerably smaller portion of Fastenal’s largest national customers saw daily sales growth vs. March. Growth from non-national accounts increased slightly month-to-month.
• U.S. daily sales growth decelerated month-to-month, as did for Canada/Mexico. In contrast, the company’s other international sales increased surged in April after declining in March.
• Daily sales growth continued in the company’s top end markets of Heavy Manufacturing, Other Manufacturing and Non-residential Construction, but decelerated slightly month-to-month. Meanwhile, Reseller increased drastically compared to March’s increase, and likewise increased year-over-year.

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 an 8.3% year-over-year high point for daily sales growth in March, April’s slight deceleration suggests that demand is potentially sliding, particularly from larger national customers. The ensuing months will help illustrate if March was a temporary rebound driven by markets frontloading on product ahead of tariff impacts.

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Go Deeper

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

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

• United States – 83.7% of sales: +7.0% (+8.4% in March)
• Canada/Mexico – 13.2% of sales: +2.6% (+7.3% in March)
• Rest of World – 3.1% of sales: +10.7% (+8.1% in March)

April Daily Sales by Product Line:

• Fasteners – 30.2% of sales: +1.5% (+4.5% in March)
• Safety – 21.9% of sales: +9.8% (+9.2% in March)
• Other – 47.9% of sales: +8.3% (+9.9% in March)

April Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 42.6% of sales: +4.6% (+7.9% in March)
• Other manufacturing – 33.2% of sales: +9.7% (+12.0% in March)
• Non-residential construction – 8.3% of sales: +0.9% (+0.2% in March)
• Other – 15.9% of sales: +8.3% (+4.5% in March)

April Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• National accounts: +9.0% (+11.0% in March)
• 49.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (59.0% in March)
• Non-national accounts: +1.0% (0.0% in March)
• 56.5% of in-market locations were growing (55.7% in March)
• FMI: +12.0% (+13.0% in March)
• eBusiness: +13.0% (+18.0% in March)

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April Headcount

Fastenal ended April with a total headcount of 24,155, down 0.1% from March and up 1.8% year-over-year. Full-time selling headcount of 21,271 was down 0.3% from March but was up 1.1% year-over-year.

In other recent company news, Fastenal announced on April 23 that is board of directors approved a two-for-one stock split for the company’s outstanding common stock.