Fastenal full-year sales and earnings climb
Despite a slow fourth quarter, Fastenal finished 2015 with a 3.6% sales increase.
Fastenal reported fourth quarter sales of $922.8 million, a 0.4% decline from the $926.3 million reported in the same period in 2014. Net earnings of $111.9 million, or 39 cents per share, compared to earnings of $118.4 million, or 40 cents, in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Fiscal 2015 sales of $3.87 billion were up 3.6% over the $3.73 billion reported for 2014. Net earnings of $516.4 million, or $1.77 per share, compared to net earnings of $494.1 million, or $1.67, the previous year.
The Winona, Minn.-based distributor finished the year with a slight decrease in the number of stores in operation. There were 2,622 store locations at the end of 2015 compared to 2,637 in 2014.
"After several years of holding back on store openings and even contracting our total store base, we plan to expand our pace of store openings in 2016 with a goal of opening 60 to 75 new stores," the company said in a prepared statement announcing its financial results for the year.
During 2015, Fastenal signed more new contracts with national account customers than in 2014. This increase reversed the declining trend in the previous year. Similar to last quarter, the business with the top 100 national account customers (representing approximately 25% of sales) experienced poor sales results in the fourth quarter of 2015, with net sales contraction of approximately 4.3%, while sales to the remaining national account customers (representing approximately 22% of sales) grew approximately 8.1%.
December sales results
Fastenal also reported that sales of $286.6 million for the month of December were up 1.1% compared to $282.6 million in the previous year. Daily sales of $13.6 million fell by 3.8% from the $14.1 million in December 2014.
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
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