Fastenal Co. fastener sales dipped 0.2% during January compared to a 1.3% increase in the opening month of 2020.   

Overall sales at Fastenal dropped 3.2% to $447.9 million last month, while daily sales totaled $22.4 million, up 6.5% from January 2020’s $21.04 million total.

Sales in the U.S. improved 4.4%, while sales in Canada and Mexico increased 14.8%.

By end market, sales to manufacturing customers rose 4.8%, and sales to non-residential construction customers declined 8.9% in January.

The company’s workforce decreased 7% during the month to 20,463 employees.  Distribution personnel shrank 10.2% to 2,636, while manufacturing personnel fell 8.6% to 615 workers.

Fastener sales declined 2.3% to $418.2 million, or 30.8% of net sales, in the fourth quarter of 2020, down from $429 million, or 33.6% of overall sales, in the fourth quarter of 2019.  During December, fastener sales gained 0.5%, compared to a 0.5% decline in the final month of 2019.

Q4 net sales increased 6.4% to $1.39 billion, due to “higher unit sales of safety and janitorial products.”

During 2020, fastener sales at Fastenal fell 7.2% to 1.69 billion (29.9% of sales).  Declines included a 2.6% drop in Q1; a 16.4% drop in Q2; a 6.9% drop in Q3; and a 2.3% drop in Q4.  Web: Fastenal.com