H1 Fastenal Sales Top $1b; Branch Strategy Changing

Jason Sandefur

Fastenal reported sales grew 13.3% to $519.7 million during the second quarter of 2007, while net earnings jumped 17% to $60.25 million.
Six-month revenue increased 13% to $1.008 billion, with “softening” fuel prices contributing to a 15% net income gain to $114.3 million. Fastenal opened 123 new stores during the first half of 2007, while closing one store during Q2. At the end of June, Fastenal had 8,089 employees.
Fastenal also highlighted its recent shift from using store openings as the primary growth driver to adding outside sales personnel to existing stores.
“We intend to fund this sales force expansion with the occupancy savings generated by opening stores at the rate of 7% to 10% per year (we expect to open approximately 8% new stores in 2007 or approximately 160 stores) versus the historical rate of approximately 14%,” the company stated.
The strategy shift aims to boost average monthly store sales more than 60% to $130,000 by 2012. Web: fastenal.com �2007 FastenerNews.com