Fastenal Sales Up: Earnings Drop

John Wolz

Fastenal Company reported sales for the first three quarters of 2001 rose 9.9% over the same period of 2000 to $613 million. Net earnings fell 8.2% to $56.8 million.
Third quarter 2001 sales rose 7.3%, but net earnings plunged 18.3% from 2000�s third quarter.
During the third quarter of 2001, Fastenal opened 25 new stores, bringing the total number of sites to 1,016. There were 4,418 site employees as of September 30, 2001, an increase of 1.4% over December 31, 2000.
Daily sales growth started at 20.3% for January, but has fallen all but one month since and was 4.9% for September 2001.
Fastenal plans to open a total of 130 stores for the year but the company is reevaluating the fourth quarter plans.
Fastenal also announced it signed an agreement with supply chain point of use provider SupplyPro Inc. Web: Fastenal.com �2001 FastenerNews.com