Fastenal reported daily sales of fastener products in the first quarter of 2018 grew 11.8% to $415 million (35% of sales), of which 3.7 percentage points were attributable to the acquired Mansco business.

Sales of non-fastener products represented 65% of sales in Q1 and grew 14.5% on a daily basis.

Net sales increased 13.2% to $1.18 billion, driven by higher unit sales.

“The higher unit sales resulted primarily from continued strength in underlying market demand and contribution from our growth drivers, most notably industrial vending and Onsite locations,” the company stated. “A lesser contributor to our sales growth in the first quarter of 2018 was higher pricing instituted to mitigate inflation in the marketplace.”

Gross profit, as a percentage of net sales, declined 73 basis points to 48.7% in Q1 from 49.4% in the first quarter of 2017.

Operating income, as a percentage of net sales, declined 50 basis points to 19.8%. Net earnings grew 29.9% to $174.3 million.

During Q1, Fastenal signed 5,679 industrial vending devices, an increase of 4.5%. The company’s installed device count increased 14.2% to 73,561. Sales through its vending devices continued to grow at “a strong double-digit pace.” Web: Fastenal.com