Fastenal Co. reported fastener sales grew 1.8% to $429 million, or 33.6% of overall sales, in the fourth quarter of 2019. Sales of non-fastener products grew 5.1% to $847.9 million, or 66.4% of overall sales.

Q4 net sales increased 3.7% to $1.28 billion, driven by higher unit sales related to industrial vending and onsite locations, as well as higher product pricing “to mitigate the impacts of general and tariff-related inflation.”

“The general slowing in economic activity that we experienced in the second and third quarters of 2019 continued in the fourth quarter of 2019,” the company stated.  

Gross profit increased 1.8% to $598.4 million, while operating income gained 2.4% to $238.9 million. Net income rose 5.9% to  $178.7 million.

During Q4, Fastenal signed 5,144 industrial vending machines, and daily vending sales growing at “a low double-digit pace” during the period.

The company opened four branches and closed 36 branches in Q4, while activating 64 onsite locations and closing 26.

During 2019, overall sales rose 7.4% to $5.33 billion. Gross profit gained 4.9% to $2.51 billion, with operating income growing 5.8% to $1.06 billion and net income up 5.2% to $790.9 million.

Fastenal signed 21,857 industrial vending devices during 2019, with its installed device count climbing 10.8% to 89,937. The company signed 362 new onsite locations during the year, while active sites increase 24.6 For % to 1,114.

During the last twelve months, absolute employee headcount dropped by 38 people at in-market locations and increased by 304 people in total to support customer acquisition, implementation, and growth in the field.

In December Fastenal faced a backlash after firing a store manager for complaining on social media about his holiday gift. Web: Fastenal.com