News

Fastenal reports 7.8% third quarter sales increase

October 18, 2019

Fastenal, a provider of wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies that uses vending machines to dispense supplies to worksite employees, reported net sales increased 7.8% in the third quarter of 2019, when compared to the third quarter of 2018, according to a press release.

The company's daily sales increased 6.1% from the third quarter of 2019, driven by higher unit sales. Another contributor was higher product pricing as a result of increases implemented in late 2018 and throughout 2019 to mitigate the impacts of general and tariff-related inflation in the marketplace. 

The company signed 16,713 industrial vending devices during the first nine months of 2019 and 5,671 devices during the third quarter of 2019. The installed device count on Sept. 30, 2019 was 88,327, an increase of 12.2% over Sept. 30, 2018.

Daily sales through vending devices grew at a mid-teens pace in the third quarter of 2019 over the third quarter of 2018 due to the increase in the installed base. These device counts do not include slightly more than 15,000 vending devices deployed as part of a lease locker program.

The company expects to sign approximately 22,000 vending devices in 2019.