Fastenal sales drop 13.6 percent for first quarter

Company will slow down its store openings
Jack Keough -- Industrial Distribution, 4/14/2009 2:06:06 PM

___________________________________________________
The Fastenal Company reported today that net sales for the three-month period ended March 31, 2009 totaled $489,347, a decrease of 13.6% from net sales of $566,210 in the first quarter of 2008. Net earnings decreased from $68,094 in the first quarter of 2008 to $48,695 in the first quarter of 2009, a decrease of 28.5%.
During the first quarter of 2009, Fastenal opened 33 new stores (Fastenal opened 53 new stores in the first quarter of 2008). These 33 new stores represent an increase of 1.4% since December 31, 2008. (Fastenal had 2,311 stores on December 31, 2008.) There were 12,736 total employees as of March 31, 2008, a decrease of 6.6% from December 31, 2008 and an increase of 1.6% from March 31, 2008.
The economic downturn is having its effect in Fastenal. In a press release the company said: "These impacts have negatively affected our sales, particularly related to our industrial production business (business where we supply products that become part of the finished goods produced by others). We remain practical optimists and we always attempt to balance long-term opportunities for growth with the necessary short-term reactions to our current reality. In this regard, we have temporarily slowed our store openings to a range of 2% to 5% new stores per year and we have stopped adding any headcount except for store openings and for stores that are growing. Over the last several years, our 'pathway to profit' initiative has slowly altered our cost structure in that a greater portion is now variable versus fixed. This has helped us today as we navigate through the current economic environment."