News

Fastenal reports higher Q4 net sales

January 24, 2019

Fastenal net sales increased $143.2 million, or 13.2 percent, from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018, the company has announced. This increase was driven by higher unit sales related primarily to continued strength in underlying market demand and contribution from industrial vending and onsite locations. Sales of nonfastener products grew 14.6 percent on a daily basis and represented 65.6 percent of sales in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Gross profit as a percentage of net sales declined 110 basis points to 47.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 from 48.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017. The most significant factors behind the decline were the net impact of inflation and the impact of customer and product mix on product margins, and higher freight costs, with these unfavorable factors only partly offset by favorable net rebates. 

The company signed 4,980 industrial vending devices during the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of 16.7 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2017, and signed 22,073 industrial vending devices in 2018, an increase of 14 percent compared with 2017. The installed device count on Dec. 31, 2018 was 81,137, an increase of 13.6 percent over Dec. 31, 2017.

Sales through vending devices continued to grow at a pace of over 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 due to the increase in the installed base, and to a lesser degree, an increase in revenue per device. These device counts do not include approximately 15,000 vending devices deployed as part of a lease locker program.