Company Snapshot: Fastenal Company

Fastenal Promptly Reports Yet Another Great Year

Address:
2001 Theurer Blvd
Winona, Minnesota 55987

Telephone:
507 454-5374

Internet Homepage:
http://www.fastenal.com

Year Founded:
1967

Total Stores:
2,652

Total Annual Sales:
$3,133,577,000

Senior Executives:
Willard D. Oberton- Chief Executive Officer
Daniel L. Florness- Executive Vice-President and CFO

Fastenal has been one of the fastest companies to issue a comprehensive financial report for fiscal 2012, which coincides with the calendar year.  Not surprisingly, for those who follow the company it was a most admirable report.  Annual sales were up 13.3%.  During this period the company opened 80 new stores increase of 3.1% with a net increase of 2.6% since December 2011.  Impressive as this may seem, company store openings actually decreased, down from the 122 the company opened during 2011 and the net gain of 3.8%.

Fastenal’s performance is all the more remarkable considering its position in a market that was at the center of the subprime crisis before being hit by a market-crippling recession.  Fastenal’s clientele-base is professional builders.  As hard hit as this industry has been by the economic winds of the past several years, the combination of crippling economic conditions and banks reluctant to lend after the subprime debacle, have placed many members of this industry segment in survival mode.

Over the past sixteen years the company has experienced only one year in which annual sales slipped- 2009.  At the start of this annual journey, yearly sales leapt from $404 million to its current all-time high of $3.13 billion.  At the same time, store count skyrocketed from 642 to the current 2,652, again an all-time high.