Fastenal Co. reported daily sales of fastener products grew 11.1% in the second quarter of 2018, totaling $448.8 million in the quarter.

Consolidated sales increased 13.1% to $1.28 billion, driven by higher unit sales related primarily to continued strength in underlying market demand and contribution from our growth drivers, most notably industrial vending and Onsite locations.

“A lesser contributor to our sales growth in the second quarter of 2018 was higher pricing instituted at the end of the fourth quarter of 2017 to mitigate inflation in the marketplace,” the company stated.

Gross profit, as a percentage of sales, declined 110 basis points to 48.7% in Q2.

“We instituted a modest price increase in the second quarter of 2017 ahead of inflationary pressures that we were seeing in our supply chain, which produced an unseasonably strong gross profit margin in the three-month period.”

Q2 operating income, as a percentage of net sales, remained steady at 21.2%, while net earnings jumped 41.9% to $211.2 million.

During the second quarter, Fastenal signed 5,537 industrial vending devices, an increase of 13.4%, bringing the company’s installed device count up 14.3% to 76,069.

Fastenal opened five branches in the second quarter of 2018 and closed 43 branches.

During the first six months of 2018, sales rose 13.1% to $2.45 billion, with net earnings growing 36.2% to $385.5 million. Web: Fastenal.com