Fastenal Company Reports 2025 First Quarter Earnings

WINONA, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fastenal Company (Nasdaq:FAST) (collectively referred to as 'Fastenal' or by terms such as 'we', 'our', or 'us'), a leader in the wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies, today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. Except for share and per share information, or as otherwise noted below, dollar amounts are stated in millions. Throughout this document, percentage and dollar calculations, which are based on non-rounded dollar values, may not be able to be recalculated using the dollar values included in this document due to the rounding of those dollar values. References to daily sales rate (DSR) change may reflect either growth (positive) or contraction (negative) for the applicable period.

PERFORMANCE SUMMARY

QUARTERLY RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Sales

Net sales increased $64.3, or 3.4%, in the first quarter of 2025 when compared to the first quarter of 2024. There was one less selling day in the first quarter of 2025 relative to the prior year period and, taking this into consideration, our net daily sales increased 5.0% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024. This was helped by the absence of Good Friday in March of 2025. Excluding these effects, results reflected contribution from improved customer contract signings over the past twelve months, which was partially offset by sluggish underlying business activity. Changes in foreign exchange rates negatively affected sales in the first quarter of 2025 by approximately 50 basis points as compared to having an immaterial impact in the first quarter of 2024.

We experienced an increase in unit sales in the first quarter of 2025. This was due to a growth in the number of customer sites spending $10K or more per month with Fastenal and, to a lesser degree, growth in average monthly sales per customer site across all customer spend categories. The impact of product pricing on net sales was not material in the first quarter of 2025 and 2024. Price levels remained relatively stable in the first quarter of 2025.

From a product standpoint, we have three categories: fasteners, including fasteners used in original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), safety supplies, and other product lines, the latter of which includes eight smaller product categories, such as tools, janitorial supplies, and cutting tools. With industrial production still sluggish in the first quarter of 2025, the performance of our fastener product line continued to lag our non-fastener product lines. The fastener category experienced growth in the first quarter of 2025 after seven consecutive flat or declining quarters. This was driven by easier comparisons and increased contribution from large customer signings. We achieved growth in our safety category reflecting the lower volatility of PPE demand, which tends to be utilized in more MRO than OEM applications, growth of our vending installed base, and success with warehousing and data center customers. Other product lines experienced growth from MRO-oriented lines, such as electrical and janitorial, rather than from OEM-oriented lines, such as cutting tools and welding/abrasives, reflecting continued soft manufacturing demand. The DSR change when compared to the same period in the prior year and the percent of sales in the period were as follows:

From an end market standpoint, we have four categories: heavy manufacturing, other manufacturing, non-residential construction, and other, the latter of which includes reseller, government/education, and transportation/warehousing. Our manufacturing end markets outperformed primarily due to the relative strength we are experiencing with key account customers with significant managed spend where our service model and technology are particularly impactful. This disproportionately benefits manufacturing customers. Other end market sales were favorably impacted by growth with warehousing and storage, and data center customers, which was partially offset by declining sales with resellers. The DSR change when compared to the same period in the prior year and the percent of sales in the period were as follows:

From a customer standpoint, we have two categories: contracts, which include national multi-site, local and regional, and government customers with significant revenue potential, and non-contracts, which include all other customers. Sales with our contract customers continue to outperform as we realize incremental sales from implementing strong customer signings that we have achieved over the last 12 months, which was partially offset by subdued business activity. Non-contract customers tend to be smaller and utilize fewer of our tools and capabilities, providing fewer avenues for share gains and therefore more closely reflect business trends, which remain sluggish. The DSR change when compared to the same period in the prior year and the percent of sales in the period were as follows:

Supplemental Data

Prior to 2025, our disclosed metrics primarily addressed development of capabilities, including branch openings, geographic expansion, growth of national accounts, growth of non-fastener products, FMI installations, and Onsite signings, to name a few. The data provided in the chart below measures the number of customer sites that are served throughout our in-market network, categorizing them by monthly customer spend categories and end market, and the sales and average sales per site. We believe this supplemental information may be useful to investors in evaluating Fastenal's business trends and whether and to what degree we are being successful, and we intend to disclose this information quarterly going forward until management determines otherwise. Historical end market sales have been updated in the table below to categorize by customer site and may not be able to be recalculated due to the rounding of those dollar values.

The prior three years of quarterly customer site data can be found at the end of this document.