Fastenal November Sales Improve, but Hold in Low-Single Digits - Modern Distribution Management

Fastenal November Sales Improve, but Hold in Low-Single Digits

Year-over-year daily sales growth doubled that of October, but the company's November-December sales figures are known to be volatile.

Fastenal reported its November sales information on Dec. 6, showing that while sales growth accelerated during the month, it remained in low single-digits — which is where most of the industry supply sector is expected to be in 2023’s fourth quarter and throughout 2024.

The distributor posted November total sales of $600 million, which was up 3.8% year-over-year, with daily sales up that same amount.

That daily sales figure doubled that of October’s 1.9% growth, which at the time was a recent low point following September’s 5.0% and August’s 3.6%.

“However, given weather swings/holidays/seasonality, November/December daily sales are notoriously volatile, so we’d caution against reading too much into one month,” noted Baird’s Industrial Distribution Equity Research division.

The following a is a breakdown of the other sales metrics Fastenal provided in its November report:

By geography in November:

  • Daily sales in the U.S. (82.2% of total) grew 3.1% year-over-year, compared to 1% in October and 10.5% in November 2022.
  • Daily sales in Canada & Mexico (14.5% of total) of grew 8.6% year-over-year, compared to 8.2% in October and 15.3% in November 2022.
  • Daily sales to the rest of international (3.3% of total) grew 2.3% grew year-over-year, compared to 0.4% in October and -10.1% in November 2022.

By end market in November:

  • Daily sales to heavy manufacturing customers (42.5% of total) grew 5.5% year-over-year, compared to 5.6% in October and 18.2% in November 2022.
  • Daily sales to other manufacturing customers (31.0% of total) grew 3.2% year-over-year, compared to 1.9% in October and 11.7% in November 2022.
  • Daily sales to Non-residential construction customers (8.7% of total) fell 8.2% year-over-year, compared to an 8.8% decline in October and a 0.9% decline in November 2022.
  • Daily sales to reseller customers (5.7% of total) fell 4.6% year-over-year, compared to a 12.0% decline in October and a 3.3% decline in November 2022.
  • Daily sales to other end markets (12.1% of total) increased 14.6% year-over-year, compared to a 6.1% increase in October and a 0.5% increase in November 2022.

By product line in November:

  • Daily sales of fasteners (30.9% of total) declined 3.0% year-over-year, compared to a 2.6% decline in October and an 8.7% increase in November 2022.
  • Daily sales of safety products (22.8% of total) increased 10.8% year-over-year, compared to a 6.4% increase in October and a 9.6% increase in November 2022.
  • Daily sales of all other products (46.3% of total) increased 5.8% year-over-year, compared to a 3.3% increase in October and a 12.0% increase in November 2022.

By customer/channel type in November:

  • 57.0% of Fastenal’s top 100 national accounts grew in November, compared to 52.0% in October and 75.0% in November 2022.
  • 52.1% of Fastenal’s in-market locations grew in November, compared to 50.9% in October and 61.5% in November 2022.
  • Daily sales to national accounts grew 9.0%, compared to 6.0% in October and 14.0% in November 2022.
  • Daily sales to non-national accounts declined 3.0% year-over-year, compared to a 4.0% decline in October and a 6.0% increase in November 2022.
  • Daily sales growth from Fastenal Managed Inventory (FMI) increased 10.0% year-over-year, compared to 12.0% in October and 23.0% in November 2022.
  • Daily sales growth from eProcurement (EDI and eCommerce) increased 29.0% year-over-year, compared to 28.0% in October and 48.0% in November 2022.

“Non-residential construction and fastener sales remain lower (year-over-year), which we view as consistent with a still soft industrial economy,” Baird noted for Fastenal.

Looking forward, Baird said it models Fastenal’s December sales at up 4.0% year-over-year, which is in line with normal seasonality/benchmark growth.

Headcount

Fastenal ended November with a total headcount of 23,204 — up 3.7% year-over-year and up 0.5% from October. Of that, 14,827 were full-time selling personnel, up 2.3% year-over-year.

Fastenal ended the month with 14,845 personnel, a 2.9% increase over the same period a year ago.

Much More From Fastenal

Fastenal has been prominently featured on MDM over the past month. This including a three-part investigative article series from Dorn Group’s John Gunderson on the “Big Pivot” Fastenal has made over the past decade from a distributor primarily focused on a branch-heavy supply chain network to one that leverages data analytics alongside its robust vending capabilities and moving ever-closer to its customers.

Find that three-part series below:

Fastenal CFO Holden Lewis was featured in our Dec. 6 virtual Data Analytics Summit, where he shared insights the success formula and the metrics/analytics culture required to out-perform the market like Fastenal has. You can check out the summit on-demand here.

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