FAST Company Profile

Fastenal Company began as a partnership in 1967, and was incorporated under the laws of Minnesota in 1968.

We sell industrial and construction supplies in a wholesale and retail fashion.

Products

Our original product offerings were fasteners and other industrial and construction supplies, many of which are sold under the Fastenal® product name. This product line, which we refer to as the fastener product line, consists of two broad categories: threaded fasteners, such as bolts, nuts, screws, studs, and related washers; and miscellaneous supplies, such as paints, various pins and machinery keys, concrete anchors, batteries, sealants, metal framing systems, wire rope, strut, private-label stud anchors, rivets, and related accessories.

Threaded fasteners are used in most manufactured products and building projects, and in the maintenance and repair of machines and structures. Many aspects of the threaded fastener market are common to all cities. Variations from city to city that do exist typically relate to the types of businesses operating in a market or to the environmental conditions in a market. Therefore, we open each store with a broad selection of base stocks of inventory and then allow the local store and district leaders to tailor the additional inventory to the local market demand as it develops.

Sources of Supply

We use a large number of suppliers for the approximately 825,000 standard stock items we distribute. Most items distributed by our network can be purchased from several sources, although preferred sourcing is used for some stock items to facilitate quality control.

Our business is highly competitive. Competitors include both large distributors located primarily in large cities and smaller distributors located in many of the same cities in which we have stores. We believe that the principal competitive factors affecting the markets for our products are customer service and convenience.