SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
____________________________________________________________
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
x | Annual report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, | |
or
o | Transition report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 |
For the transition period from to | |
Commission file number 0-16125
____________________________________________________________
FASTENAL COMPANY
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Minnesota | 41-0948415 |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
2001 Theurer Boulevard Winona, Minnesota | 55987-0978 |
(Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) |
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of Each Class | Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered |
Common Stock, par value $.01 per share | The NASDAQ Stock Market |
None
____________________________________________________________
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act Yes x No o
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act Yes o No x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes x No o
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See definition of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer”, and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large Accelerated Filer | x | Accelerated Filer | o |
Non-accelerated Filer | o (Do not check if a smaller reporting company) | Smaller Reporting Company | o |
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes o No x
The aggregate market value of the Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2014, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $14,587,577,033, based on the closing sale price of the Common Stock on that date. For purposes of determining this number, all executive officers and directors of the registrant as of June 30, 2014 are considered to be affiliates of the registrant. This number is provided only for the purposes of this report on Form 10-K and does not represent an admission by either the registrant or any such person as to the status of such person.
As of January 23, 2015, the registrant had 295,880,219 shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding.
FASTENAL COMPANY
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of our Proxy Statement for the annual meeting of shareholders to be held Tuesday, April 21, 2015 (‘Proxy Statement’) are incorporated by reference in Part III. Portions of our 2014 Annual Report to Shareholders are incorporated by reference in Part II.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements contained in this Form 10-K, or in other reports of the Company and other written and oral statements made from time to time by the Company, do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. As such, they are considered 'forward-looking statements' that provide current expectations or forecasts of future events. These forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as anticipate, believe, should, estimate, expect, intend, may, plan, goal, project, will, potential, momentum, trend, target, generally, typically, experience, strive, and similar words or expressions. Any statement that is not a historical fact, including estimates, projections, future trends, and the outcome of events that have not yet occurred, is a forward-looking statement. Our forward-looking statements generally relate to our expectations regarding the business environment in which we operate, our projections of future performance, our perceived marketplace opportunities, and our strategies, goals, mission, and vision. You should understand that forward-looking statements involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, and may be affected by inaccurate assumptions. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may vary materially. Factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, economic downturns, weakness in the manufacturing or commercial construction industries, competitive pressure on selling prices, changes in our current mix of products, customers or geographic locations, change in our average store size, changes in our purchasing patterns, changes in customer needs, changes in fuel or commodity prices, inclement weather, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, difficulty in adapting our business model to different foreign business environments, weak acceptance or adoption of vending technology or increased competition in vending, difficulty in maintaining installation quality as our vending business expands, difficulty in hiring, relocating, training, or retaining qualified personnel, failure to accurately predict the number of North American markets able to support stores or to meet store opening goals, difficulty in controlling operating expenses, difficulty in collecting receivables or accurately predicting future inventory needs, dramatic changes in sales trends, changes in supplier production lead times, changes in our cash position, changes in tax law, changes in the availability or price of commercial real estate, changes in the nature or price of distribution and other technology, cyber-security incidents, potential liability and reputational damage that can arise if our products are defective, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in this Form 10-K under the heading ‘Item 1A. Risk Factors’. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and we undertake no obligation to update any such statement to reflect events or circumstances arising after such date.
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PRESENTATION OF DOLLAR AMOUNTS
All dollar amounts in this Form 10-K are presented in thousands, except for share and per share information or unless otherwise noted.
STOCK SPLIT
All information contained in this Form 10-K reflects the two-for-one stock splits in 2011 and 2005.
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PART I
ITEM 1. | BUSINESS |
Note – Information in this section is as of year end unless otherwise noted. The year end is typically December 31, 2014 unless additional years are included or noted.
Fastenal Company (together with our subsidiaries, hereinafter referred to as Fastenal or the Company or by terms such as we, our, or us) began as a partnership in 1967, and was incorporated under the laws of Minnesota in 1968. We have 2,637 store locations. The various geographic areas in which we operate these store locations are summarized later in this document.
We employ 18,417 people. We characterize these personnel as follows:
2014 | 2013 | |||
Store and in-plant | 12,293 | 11,550 | ||
Non-store selling | 1,349 | 1,242 | ||
Selling subtotal | 13,642 | 12,792 | ||
Distribution | 3,120 | 2,931 | ||
Manufacturing | 630 | 603 | ||
Administrative | 1,025 | 951 | ||
Non-selling subtotal | 4,775 | 4,485 | ||
Total | 18,417 | 17,277 | ||
We sell industrial and construction supplies to end-users (typically business-to-business), and also have some 'walk-in' retail business. These industrial and construction supplies are grouped into twelve product lines described later in this document.
We operate 14 distribution centers in North America from which we distribute products to our store and in-plant locations. Eleven of these are in the United States, two are in Canada, and one is in Mexico.
Our Internet address for corporate and investor information is www.fastenal.com. The information contained on this website or connected to this website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this report.
Development of the Business
We began in 1967 with a marketing strategy of supplying threaded fasteners to customers in small, medium-sized, and, in subsequent years, large cities. We believe our success can be attributed to our ability to offer our customers a full line of products at convenient locations and to the high quality of our employees.
We opened our first store in Winona, Minnesota, a city with a population of approximately 27,000. The following table shows our consolidated net sales for each fiscal year during the last ten years and the number of our store locations at the end of each of the last ten years:
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | ||||||||||
Net sales (in millions) | $3,733.5 | 3,326.1 | 3,133.6 | 2,766.9 | 2,269.5 | 1,930.3 | 2,340.4 | 2,061.8 | 1,809.3 | 1,523.3 | |||||||||
Number of stores | 2,637 | 2,687 | 2,652 | 2,585 | 2,490 | 2,369 | 2,311 | 2,160 | 2,000 | 1,755 | |||||||||
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We operated the following number of store locations:
2014 | 2013 | ||||||
North America | United States | 2,336 | 2,394 | ||||
Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic | 8 | 8 | |||||
Canada | 202 | 204 | |||||
Mexico | 44 | 41 | |||||
Subtotal | 2,590 | 2,647 | |||||
Central & South America | Panama, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile | 9 | 8 | ||||
Asia | China and India | 10 | 8 | ||||
Southeast Asia | Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand | 7 | 7 | ||||
Europe | The Netherlands, Hungary, United Kingdom, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, Poland, and Sweden | 20 | 17 | ||||
Africa | South Africa | 1 | — | ||||
Total | 2,637 | 2,687 | |||||
We select new locations for our stores based on their proximity to our distribution network, population statistics, and employment data for manufacturing and construction. In 2014, 2013, and 2012, we opened new stores at a rate of approximately 1%, 2%, and 3%, respectively. We expect to open 20 to 30 stores in 2015, which is an annual rate similar to 2014.
We stock all new stores with inventory drawn from all of our product lines. Subsequent to a new opening, district and store personnel may supplement the inventory offering to customize the selection to the needs of our local customer base.
We currently have several versions of selling locations. The first type of selling location – a Fastenal store location – is either (1) a ‘traditional’ store, which services a wide variety of customers and stocks a wide selection of the products we offer or (2) an ‘overseas’ store, which focuses on manufacturing customers and on the fastener product line (this is the type of store format we typically have outside the United States and Canada).
In addition to the Fastenal store type discussed above, we also operate strategic account stores, strategic account sites, and ‘in-plant’ sites. A strategic account store is a unique location that sells to multiple large customers in a market. Because this location sells to multiple customers, it is included in our store count. A strategic account site is essentially the same, but it typically operates out of an existing store location, rather than a unique location; therefore it is not included in our store count. An ‘in-plant’ site is a selling unit located in or near a customer’s facility that sells product solely to that customer. ‘In-plant’ sites are not included in our store count numbers as they represent a customer subset of an existing store.
We currently believe, based on the demographics of the marketplace in North America, there is sufficient potential in this geographic area to support at least 3,500 total stores. Many of the new store locations may be in cities in which we currently operate. While we believe there is sufficient potential in North America for 3,500 total stores, or approximately 900 more than today, we have slowed our store openings in recent years and instead have increased our investments in other growth drivers such as people (both inside and outside our stores), FAST Solutions® (industrial vending), and end-market growth investments. This allows us to maintain an aggressive offense where competitors are investing for growth, and to maintain a steady offense where competitors aren't investing - namely store openings. Fastenal has not operated outside of North America long enough to assess the market potential of those markets.
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We opened the following stores in the last five years:
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | |||||||||||
North America | United States | 10 | 30 | 58 | 101 | 111 | |||||||||
Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
Canada | 4 | 10 | 13 | 11 | 7 | ||||||||||
Mexico | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
Subtotal | 17 | 45 | 73 | 113 | 119 | ||||||||||
Central & South America | Panama, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
Asia | China and India | 2 | — | — | 3 | 3 | |||||||||
Southeast Asia | Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand | — | — | 2 | — | 2 | |||||||||
Europe | The Netherlands, Hungary, United Kingdom, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, Poland, and Sweden | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||
Africa | South Africa | 1 | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
Total | 24 | 53 | 80 | 122 | 127 | ||||||||||
We plan to open additional stores outside of the United States in the future. The stores located outside the United States contributed approximately 11% of our consolidated net sales in 2014, with approximately 56% of this amount attributable to our Canadian operations.
No assurance can be given that any of the expansion plans described above will be achieved, or that new store locations, once opened, will be profitable.
It has been our experience that near-term profitability has been adversely affected by the opening of new store locations. This adverse effect is due to the start-up costs and the time necessary to generate a customer base. A new store generates its sales from direct sales calls, a slow process involving repeated contacts. As a result of this process, sales volume builds slowly and it typically requires ten to twelve months for a new store to achieve its first profitable month. Of the nine stores opened in the first quarter of 2014, four were profitable in the fourth quarter of 2014.
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The data in the following table shows the change in the average sales of our stores from 2013 to 2014 based on the age of each store. Included in the average monthly sales amounts are sales from our non-store selling locations, such as our Holo-Krome® business (included in the 2009 group, the year it was acquired). The stores opened in 2014 contributed approximately $9,762 (or approximately 0.3%) of our consolidated net sales in 2014, with the remainder coming from stores opened prior to 2014 or from our non-store business.
Age of Stores on December 31, 2014 | Year Opened | Number of Stores in Group on December 31, 2014 | Closed Stores1 | Converted Stores2 | Average Monthly Sales 2014 | Average Monthly Sales 2013 | Percent Change | |||||||||||||||
0-1 year old | 2014 | 24 | — | — | $ | 34 | 3 | N/A | — | |||||||||||||
1-2 years old | 2013 | 53 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 82 | 29 | 3 | 182.8 | % | |||||||||||||
2-3 years old | 2012 | 75 | 3/0 | 0/-2 | 83 | 67 | 23.9 | % | ||||||||||||||
3-4 years old | 2011 | 113 | 8/1 | -1/0 | 92 | 78 | 17.9 | % | ||||||||||||||
4-5 years old | 2010 | 116 | 7/4 | 0/0 | 90 | 79 | 13.9 | % | ||||||||||||||
5-6 years old | 2009 | 62 | 4/1 | 0/0 | 134 | 125 | 7.2 | % | ||||||||||||||
6-7 years old | 2008 | 140 | 9/2 | 0/0 | 87 | 77 | 13.0 | % | ||||||||||||||
7-8 years old | 2007 | 144 | 8/0 | 0/0 | 102 | 90 | 13.3 | % | ||||||||||||||
8-9 years old | 2006 | 219 | 12/1 | 0/0 | 102 | 91 | 12.1 | % | ||||||||||||||
9-10 years old | 2005 | 205 | 6/1 | 0/0 | 94 | 84 | 11.9 | % | ||||||||||||||
10-11 years old | 2004 | 208 | 4/1 | 0/0 | 107 | 95 | 12.6 | % | ||||||||||||||
11-12 years old | 2003 | 141 | 3/0 | 0/0 | 98 | 88 | 11.4 | % | ||||||||||||||
12-16 years old | 1999-2002 | 387 | 4/3 | -1/0 | 124 | 111 | 11.7 | % | ||||||||||||||
16+ years old | 1967-1998 | 750 | 5/2 | 1/0 | 158 | 145 | 9.0 | % | ||||||||||||||
1 | We closed 73 stores and 16 stores in 2014 and 2013, respectively. The number of closed stores is noted in the table above as 2014 number/2013 number. |
2 | We converted two store locations to non-store selling locations, and one non-store selling location to a store in 2014. We converted two store locations to non-store selling locations in 2013. The number of converted stores is noted in the table above as 2014 number/2013 number, with store locations converted to non-store locations shown as negative numbers. |
3 | The average sales include sales of stores open for less than the full fiscal year. |
Several years ago, we introduced our FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) offering and it has been an expanding component of our business. We believe industrial vending is the next logical chapter in the Fastenal story and also believe it has the potential to be transformative to industrial distribution, both because of its benefits to our customers such as reduced consumption, reduced purchase orders, reduced product handling, and 24-hour product availability, and its benefits to us in that it allows us to strengthen our relationships with our customers and streamline the supply chain. We believe we have a 'first mover' advantage in industrial vending and are investing to maximize this advantage.
We operate eleven regional distribution centers in the United States—Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, Washington, California, Utah, North Carolina, and Kansas, and three outside the United States – Ontario, Canada; Alberta, Canada; and Nuevo Leon, Mexico. These 14 distribution centers give us approximately 2.9 million square feet of distribution capacity. These distribution centers are located so as to permit twice-a-week to five times-a-week deliveries to our stores using our trucks and overnight delivery by surface common carrier. As the number of stores increases, we intend to add new distribution centers. The distribution centers in Indiana and California also serve as a 'master' hub to support the needs of the stores in their geographic region as well as provide a broader selection of products for the stores serviced by the other distribution centers.
We currently operate our Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, California, and Ontario, Canada distribution centers with 'automated storage and retrieval systems' or ASRS. These eight distribution centers operate with greater speed and efficiency, and currently handle approximately 82% of our picking activity. The Indiana facility also contains our centralized replenishment facility for a portion of our industrial vending business. This operation is also highly automated. We intend to invest in this type of ASRS distribution infrastructure over the next several years at our Washington, North Carolina, and Kansas locations.
Our information systems department develops, implements, and maintains the computer based technology used to support business functions within Fastenal. Corporate, e-Business, and distribution center systems are primarily supported from central locations, while each store uses a locally installed Point-Of-Sale (POS) system. The systems consist of both customized and purchased software. A dedicated Wide Area Network (WAN) is used to provide connectivity between systems and authorized users.
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Trademarks and Service Marks
We conduct business under various trademarks and service marks, and we utilize a variety of designs and tag lines in connection with each of these marks, including First In Fasteners®. Although we do not believe our operations are substantially dependent upon any of our trademarks or service marks, we consider the ‘Fastenal’ name and our other trademarks and service marks to be valuable to our business.
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 and hardware, such as various pins and machinery keys, concrete anchors, metal framing systems, wire rope, strut, 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 encourage the local store and district leaders to tailor the additional inventory to the local market demand as it develops.
Threaded fasteners accounted for approximately 90% of the fastener product line sales in 2014, 2013, and 2012 and approximately 36%, 38%, and 40% of our consolidated net sales in 2014, 2013, and 2012, respectively.
Since 1993, we have added additional product lines. These product lines are sold through the same distribution channel as the original fastener product line. Our product lines include the following:
Product Line: | Year Introduced |
Fasteners | 1967 |
Tools | 1993 |
Cutting tools | 1996 |
Hydraulics & pneumatics | 1996 |
Material handling | 1996 |
Janitorial supplies | 1996 |
Electrical supplies | 1997 |
Welding supplies1 | 1997 |
Safety supplies | 1999 |
Metals | 2001 |
Direct Ship | 2004 |
Office supplies | 2010 |
1 | We do not sell welding gases. |
Each product line listed above may contain multiple product categories. During the last several years, we have added 'private label' brands (we often refer to these as 'exclusive brands') to our offering. These 'private label' brands represented approximately 11% of our total net sales in 2014. Most of these 'private label' products are in the non-fastener product lines.
We plan to continue to add other products in the future.
Inventory Control
Our inventory stocking levels are determined using our computer systems, our sales personnel at the store, district, and region levels, and our product managers. The data used for this determination is derived from sales activity from all of our stores, from individual stores, and from different geographic areas. It is also derived from vendor information and from customer demographic information. The computer system monitors the inventory level for all stock items and triggers replenishment, or prompts a buyer to purchase, as necessary, based on an established minimum-maximum level. All stores stock a base inventory and may expand beyond preset inventory levels as deemed appropriate by the district and store personnel. Inventories in
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distribution centers are established from computerized data for the stores served by the respective centers. Inventory quantities are continuously re-balanced utilizing an automated transfer mechanism we call ‘inventory re-distribution’.
Manufacturing and Support Services Operations
In 2014, approximately 95% of our consolidated net sales were attributable to products manufactured by other companies to industry standards or to customer specific requirements. The remaining 5% related to products manufactured, modified or repaired by our manufacturing businesses or our support services. The manufactured products consist primarily of non-standard sizes of threaded fasteners made to customers’ specifications or standard sizes manufactured under our Holo-Krome® product line. The services provided by the support services group include, but are not limited to, items such as tool repair, band saw blade welding, and light manufacturing. We engage in these activities primarily as a service to our customers and expect these activities in the future to continue to contribute in the range of 4% to 10% of our consolidated net sales.
Sources of Supply
We use a large number of suppliers for the 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. No single supplier accounted for more than 5% of our purchases in 2014.
Geographic Information
Information regarding our revenues and long-lived assets by geographic location is set forth in Note 8 of the 'Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements' included later in this Form 10-K under the heading ‘Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data’. Foreign currency fluctuations, changes in trade relations, or fluctuations in the relative strength of foreign economies could impact our ability to procure products overseas at competitive prices and our foreign sales.
Customers and Marketing
We believe our success can be attributed to our ability to offer customers a full line of quality products at convenient locations, and to the superior service orientation and expertise of our employees. Most of our customers are in the manufacturing and non-residential construction markets. The manufacturing market includes both original equipment manufacturers and maintenance and repair operations. The non-residential construction market includes general, electrical, plumbing, sheet metal, and road contractors. Other users of our products include farmers, truckers, railroads, oil exploration, production, and refinement companies, mining companies, federal, state, and local governmental entities, schools, and certain retail trades. During the fourth quarter of 2014, our total number of active customer accounts (defined as accounts having purchase activity within the last 90 days) was approximately 399,000, while our total 'core accounts' (defined as the average number of accounts each month with purchase activity of at least $250 per month) was approximately 100,000.
In 2014, no one customer accounted for 10% or more of our sales. We believe that our large number of customers, together with the varied markets that they represent, provide some protection to us from economic downturns that are not across multiple industries and geographic regions.
Direct marketing continues to be the backbone of our business through our local storefronts and selling personnel. We support our stores with multi-channel marketing including email and online marketing, catalogs, promotional flyers, events, and store signage. In recent years, our national advertising has been focused on NASCAR® sponsorships through our partnership with Roush Fenway Racing. From 2012 through 2014, Fastenal was the primary sponsor of Carl Edwards’ No. 99 car in the Sprint Cup Series, and we’ll continue to present the Fastenal brand to millions of Sprint Cup fans as the primary sponsor of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 17 car in 2015. In addition to our NASCAR® sponsorship, we do limited print and online advertising through a variety of publications and outlets.
Seasonality
Seasonality has some impact on our sales. During the winter months, our sales to customers in the non-residential construction market typically slow due to inclement weather. Also, sales to our industrial production customers may decrease during the Fourth of July holiday period, the Thanksgiving holiday period (October in Canada and November in the United States), and the Christmas and New Year holiday period, due to plant shut-downs.
Competition
Our business is highly competitive. Competitors include large distributors located primarily in large cities, smaller distributors located in many of the same smaller markets in which we have stores, and on-line retailers. We believe the principal competitive factors affecting the markets for our products are customer service, price, convenience, product availability, and cost saving solutions.
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Some competitors use vans to sell their products in markets away from their main warehouses, while others rely on mail order, websites, or telemarketing sales. We, however, believe the convenience provided to customers by operating stores in small, medium, and large markets, each offering a wide variety of products, is a competitive selling advantage and the convenience of a large number of stores in a given area, taken together with our ability to provide frequent deliveries to such stores from centrally located distribution centers, makes possible the prompt and efficient distribution of products. We also believe our FAST Solutions® (industrial vending), combined with our local storefront, provides a unique way to provide to our customers convenient access to products and cost saving solutions using a business model not easily replicated by our competitors. Having trained personnel at each store also enhances our ability to compete (see ‘Employees’ below).
Employees
We employ a total of 18,417 full and part-time employees, most of whom are employed at a store location. A breakout of the number of employees, and their respective roles, is contained earlier in this document.
We believe the quality of our employees is critical to our ability to compete successfully in the markets we currently serve and to our ability to open new stores in new markets. We foster the growth and education of skilled employees throughout the organization by operating training programs and by decentralizing decision-making. Wherever possible, our goal is to ‘promote from within’. For example, most new store managers are promoted from an outside sales position and district managers (who supervise a number of stores) are usually former store managers.
The Fastenal School of Business (our internal corporate university program) develops and delivers a comprehensive array of industry and company specific education and training programs that are offered to our employees. Our school of business provides core curricula focused on key competencies determined to be critical to the success of our employees’ performance. In addition, we provide specialized educational tracks within various institutes of learning. These institutes of learning are advanced levels that provide specific concentrations of education and development and have been designed to focus on the critical aspects of our business. These institutes provide a focused educational experience to enhance employee performance in relevant business areas such as leadership, effective store best practices, sales and marketing, product education, and distribution.
Our sales personnel are compensated with a modest base salary and an incentive bonus arrangement that places emphasis on achieving increased sales on a store, district, and regional basis, while still attaining targeted levels of, among other things, gross profit and collections. As a result, a significant portion of our total employment cost varies with sales volume. We also pay incentive bonuses to our leadership personnel based on one or more of the following factors: sales growth, earnings growth (before and after taxes), profitability, and return on assets, and to our other personnel for achieving pre-determined departmental, project, and cost containment goals.
None of our employees is subject to a collective bargaining agreement and we have experienced no work stoppages. We believe our employee relations are good.
Available Information
Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act are available free of charge on or through our website at www.fastenal.com as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports have been filed with or furnished to the SEC.
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ITEM 1A. | RISK FACTORS |
In addition to the other information in this Form 10-K, the following factors should be considered in evaluating our business. Our operating results depend upon many factors and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The material risks and uncertainties known to us which may cause the operating results to vary from anticipated results or which may negatively affect our operating results and profitability are as follows:
A downturn in the economy or in the principal markets served by us and other factors may affect customer spending, which could harm our operating results. In general, our sales represent spending on discretionary items or consumption needs by our customers. This spending is affected by many factors, including, among others:
• | general business conditions, |
• | business conditions in our principal markets, |
• | interest rates, |
• | inflation, |
• | liquidity in credit markets, |
• | taxation, |
• | government regulations, |
• | energy and fuel prices and electrical power rates, |
• | unemployment trends, |
• | terrorist attacks and acts of war, |
• | weather conditions, and |
• | other matters that influence customer confidence and spending. |
A downturn in either the national or local economy where our stores operate, or in the principal markets served by us, or changes in any of the other factors described above, could negatively impact sales at our stores and their level of profitability.
This risk was demonstrated during the last several years. As the economic condition in North America weakened significantly in the fall of 2008 and into 2009, our customers, which operate principally in various manufacturing, non-residential construction, and services sectors, experienced a pronounced slowdown that adversely impacted our sales and operating results in those periods. A lag in these sectors, even as the general economy improves, could adversely impact our business.
Products that we sell may expose us to potential material liability for property damage, environmental damage, personal injury, or death linked to the use of those products by our customers. Some of our customers operate in challenging industries where there is a material risk of catastrophic events, and we are actively seeking to expand our sales to certain categories of customers (such as those in the aerospace industry) whose businesses entail heightened levels of that type of risk. If any of these events are linked to the use by our customers of any of our products, claims could be brought against us by those customers, by governmental authorities, and by third parties who are injured or damaged as a result of such events. In addition, our reputation could be adversely affected by negative publicity surrounding such events regardless of whether or not claims against us are successful. While we maintain insurance coverage to mitigate a portion of this risk and may have recourse against our suppliers for losses arising out of defects in products procured from them, we could experience significant losses as a result of claims made against us to the extent adequate insurance is not in place, the products are manufactured by us or legal recourse against our suppliers is otherwise not available, or our insurers or suppliers are unwilling or unable to satisfy their obligations to us.
Interruptions in the proper functioning of information systems could disrupt operations and cause unanticipated increases in costs and/or decreases in revenues. The proper functioning of our information systems is critical to the successful operation of our business. Although our information systems are protected with robust backup systems, including physical and software safeguards and remote processing capabilities, information systems are still vulnerable to natural disasters, power losses, unauthorized access, telecommunication failures, and other problems. If critical information systems fail or are otherwise unavailable, our ability to process orders, maintain proper levels of inventories, collect accounts receivable, pay expenses, and maintain the security of the Company and customer data could be adversely affected. Disruptions or failures of, or security breaches with respect to, our information technology infrastructure could have a negative impact on our operations.
In the event of a cyber security incident, we could experience certain operational problems or interruptions, incur substantial additional costs, or become subject to legal or regulatory proceedings, any of which could lead to damage to our reputation in the marketplace. In addition, compliance with cyber security laws, regulations, and standards could be difficult and costly, and failure to comply could expose us to legal risk. The nature of our business requires us to receive, retain, and transmit certain personally identifying information that our customers provide to purchase products or services, register on our websites, or otherwise communicate and interact with us. While we have taken and continue to undertake significant steps to protect our customer and confidential information and the functioning of our computer systems and website, a compromise of our data security systems or those of businesses we interact with could result in information related to our customers or business being obtained by unauthorized persons or other operational problems or interruptions. We
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develop and update processes and maintain systems in an effort to try to prevent this from occurring, but the development and maintenance of these processes and systems is costly and requires ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome security measures become more sophisticated. Consequently, despite our efforts, the possibility of intrusion, interruption of our business, cyber security incidents and theft cannot be eliminated entirely, and risks associated with each of these remain. While we also seek to obtain assurances that third parties we interact with will protect confidential information, there is a risk the confidentiality of data held or accessed by third parties may be compromised. If a compromise of our data security or function of our computer systems or website were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition and, possibly, subject us to additional legal, regulatory, and operating costs, and damage our reputation in the marketplace. In addition, our handling and use of personal information is regulated at the international, federal, and state levels. Privacy and information security laws, regulations, and standards such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard change from time to time, and compliance with them may result in cost increases due to necessary system changes and the development of new processes, and may be difficult to achieve. If we fail to comply with these laws, regulations, and standards, we could be subjected to legal risk.
Our current estimate for total store market potential in North America could be incorrect. One of our strategies is to grow our business through the introduction of stores into new and existing markets. Based on a snapshot of current marketplace demographics in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, we currently estimate there is potential market opportunity in North America to support approximately 3,500 stores, or approximately 900 more stores than we have today. This estimate is based on our business model today, and market changes such as industrial vending and the internet, or other types of e-business, could cause it to change. In addition, a particular local market’s ability to support a store may change because of a change in that market, a change in our store format, or the presence of a competitor’s store. We cannot guarantee that our market potential estimates are accurate or that we will decide to open stores to reach the full market opportunity. While we estimate we have the potential in North America for approximately 900 more stores than we have today, we have slowed our store openings in recent years and have focused instead on other growth drivers of our business.
We may be unable to meet our goals regarding new store openings. Our growth is dependent primarily on our ability to attract new customers and increase our activity with existing customers. Historically, the most effective way to attract new customers has been opening new stores, although that has not been our primary growth driver in recent years. We expect to open new stores at the rate of approximately 1% in 2015; however, we cannot assure you that we can open stores at this rate, and failure to do so could negatively impact our long-term growth. We opened stores at the rate of approximately 1%, 2%, and 3% in 2014, 2013, and 2012, respectively.
Our ‘pathway-to-profit’ strategy, the goal of which is to improve our pre-tax profit margins by growing the average annual sales of our stores, may prove unsuccessful on a long-term basis. In April 2007, we introduced our ‘pathway-to-profit’ strategy. That strategy involved slowing our annual new store openings and investing the funds saved by opening fewer stores in additional sales and sales leadership personnel. Under the 'pathway-to-profit' strategy, our goal is to increase our average annual sales per store, which would allow us to capture earnings leverage (by spreading operating and administrative expenses over higher sales) and grow our pre-tax profit margin. Our gross profit margin generally decreases as our average per store sales increase, as larger stores sell to larger customers whose more focused buying patterns merit better pricing. However, our operating and administrative expenses, expressed as a percentage of net sales, typically improve as average per store sales grow. In most years the net effect is an increase in our pre-tax profit margin, as the relative improvement in operating and administrative expenses offsets the decrease in gross profit margin. A downturn in the economy or in the principle markets served by us or difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified sales and sales leadership personnel could adversely impact our ability to continue to grow our average per store sales. In addition, greater than expected decreases in our gross profit margin resulting from changes in customer mix or other factors noted below, or the failure to control operating and administrative expenses to the degree necessary to offset expected decreases in our gross profit margin, could adversely impact our pre-tax profit margin even as average per store sales increase. The latter was evidenced in 2014, when the improvement in our operating and administrative expenses as a percentage of net sales was not sufficient to counterbalance the decrease in our gross profit margin, due in part to our push to add more personnel and labor hours in our stores and more district and regional leaders to better serve our stores, and in part to rising miscellaneous expenses.
Changes in customer or product mix, downward pressure on sales prices, and changes in volume of orders could cause our gross profit percentage to fluctuate or decline in the future. Changes in our customer or product mix could cause our gross profit percentage to fluctuate or decline. From time to time, we have experienced changes in customer or product mix that have caused our gross profit percentage to deteriorate. For example, the portion of our sales attributable to fasteners has been decreasing in recent years. That has adversely affected our gross profit percentage as our non-fastener products generally carry lower gross profit margin than our fastener products. Also, as noted above, our strategy of growing our pre-tax profit margin by increasing our average annual sales per store has contributed to a drop in our gross profit percentage due to resulting changes in our customer mix. If our customer or product mix continues to change, our gross profit percentage may decline further. Downward pressure on sales prices and changes in the volume of our orders could also cause our gross profit percentage to fluctuate or decline. We can experience downward pressure on sales prices as a result of deflation, pressure from customers to
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reduce costs, or increased competition, as was the case in 2009 and the latter half of 2013. Furthermore, reductions in our volume of purchases, as also happened in 2009 and the latter half of 2013, can adversely impact gross profit by reducing supplier volume allowances.
Opening stores in new markets presents increased risks that may prevent us from being profitable in these new locations. We intend to open stores in new markets pursuant to our growth strategy. New stores do not typically achieve operating results comparable to our existing stores until after several years of operation, and stores in new markets face additional challenges to achieving profitability. A new store generates its sales from direct sales calls, a slow process involving repeated contacts. In new markets, we have less familiarity with local customer preferences and customers in these markets are less familiar with our name and capabilities. In addition, entry into new markets may bring us into competition with new, unfamiliar competitors. We cannot assure success in operating our stores on a profitable basis in new markets.
New store openings may negatively impact our operating results. While new stores build the infrastructure for future growth, the first year sales in new stores are low, and the added expenses relating to payroll, occupancy, and transportation costs can impact our ability to leverage earnings. It has been our experience that new stores take at least ten to twelve months to achieve profitability. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in operating our new stores on a profitable basis.
The ability to identify new products and product lines, and integrate them into our store and distribution network, may impact our ability to compete and our sales and profit margins. Our success depends in part on our ability to develop product expertise at the store level and identify future products and product lines that complement existing products and product lines and that respond to our customers’ needs. We may not be able to compete effectively unless our product selection keeps up with trends in the markets in which we compete or trends in new products. In addition, our ability to integrate new products and product lines into our stores and distribution network could impact sales and profit margins.
Changes in energy costs and the cost of raw materials used in our products could impact our net sales, gross profit percentage, cost of goods, distribution expenses, and occupancy expenses, which may result in lower operating income. Costs of raw materials used in our products (e.g., steel) and energy costs have fluctuated during the last several years. Increases in these costs result in increased production costs for our suppliers. These suppliers typically look to pass their increased costs along to us through price increases. The fuel costs of our distribution and store operations have fluctuated as well. While we typically try to pass increased supplier prices and fuel costs through to our customers or to modify our activities to mitigate the impact, we may not be successful, particularly if supplier prices or fuel costs rise rapidly. Failure to fully pass any such increased prices and costs through to our customers or to modify our activities to mitigate the impact would have an adverse effect on our operating income. While increases in the cost of fuel or raw materials could be damaging to us, decreases in those costs, particularly if severe, could also adversely impact us by creating deflation in selling prices, which could cause our gross profit margin to deteriorate, or by negatively impacting customers in certain industries (such as oil exploration, production, and refinement companies), which could cause our sales to those customers to decline.
Our ability to successfully attract and retain qualified personnel to staff our stores could impact labor costs, sales at existing stores, and the rate of new store openings. Our success depends in part on our ability to attract, motivate, and retain a sufficient number of qualified employees, including store managers, outside sales personnel, and other store associates, who understand and appreciate our culture and are able to adequately represent this culture to our customers. Qualified individuals of the requisite caliber and number needed to fill these positions may be in short supply in some areas, and the turnover rate in the industry is high. If we are unable to hire and retain personnel capable of consistently providing a high level of customer service, as demonstrated by their enthusiasm for our culture and product knowledge, our sales could be materially adversely affected. Additionally, competition for qualified employees could require us to pay higher wages to attract a sufficient number of employees. An inability to recruit and retain a sufficient number of qualified individuals in the future may also delay the planned openings of new stores. Any such delays, material increases in employee turnover rates at existing stores, or increases in labor costs, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or operating results.
Inclement weather and other disruptions to the transportation network could impact our distribution system and adversely impact demand for our products. Our ability to provide efficient distribution of core business products to our store network is an integral component of our overall business strategy. Disruptions at distribution centers or shipping ports, due to events such as the hurricanes of 2005 and 2012 and the longshoreman’s strike on the West Coast in 2002, may affect our ability to both maintain core products in inventory and deliver products to our customers on a timely basis, which may in turn adversely affect our results of operations. In addition, severe weather conditions could adversely affect demand for our products in particularly hard hit regions. This risk was felt in the first quarter of 2014 as our sales growth was hampered in January and February due to a severe winter in North America and its negative impact on our customers and our trucking network.
We are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk, and changes in foreign exchange rates could increase our costs to procure products and our foreign sales. Because the functional currency related to most of our foreign operations is the applicable local currency, we are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk arising from transactions in the normal course of business. Fluctuations in the relative strength of foreign economies and their related currencies could impact our ability to
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procure products overseas at competitive prices and our foreign sales. Our primary exchange rate exposure is with the Canadian dollar.
We may not be able to compete effectively against our competitors, which could harm our business and operating results. The industrial, construction, and maintenance supply industry, although consolidating, still remains a large, fragmented industry that is highly competitive. Our current or future competitors may include companies with similar or greater market presence, name recognition, and financial, marketing, and other resources, and we believe they will continue to challenge us with their product selection, financial resources, and services. Increased competition from brick and mortar retailers in markets in which we have stores or from on-line retailers (particularly those major internet providers who can offer a wide range of products and rapid delivery), and the adoption by competitors of aggressive pricing strategies and sales methods, could cause us to lose market share or reduce our prices or increase our spending, thus eroding our operating income.
Products manufactured in foreign countries may cease to be available, which could adversely affect our inventory levels and operating results. We obtain certain of our products, and our suppliers obtain certain of their products, from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico, and other foreign countries. Our suppliers could discontinue selling products manufactured in foreign countries at any time for reasons that may or may not be in our control or our suppliers' control, including foreign government regulations, domestic government regulations, political unrest, war, disruption or delays in shipments, changes in local economic conditions, or trade issues. Our operating results and inventory levels could suffer if we are unable to promptly replace a supplier who is unwilling or unable to satisfy our requirements with another supplier providing equally appealing products.
Our business may be adversely affected by political gridlock in the United States. We primarily operate in the United States. During the last several years there has been significant fiscal uncertainty in the country, the resolution of which has been impeded by political gridlock. We believe this has adversely impacted our business and could negatively impact our business in the future.
Our FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) business is relatively new, and our competitive advantage could be eliminated. We believe we have a competitive advantage in industrial vending due to our vending hardware and software, our local store presence (allowing us to service machines more rapidly), our 'vendible' product depth, and, in North America, our distribution strength. These advantages have developed over time; however, other competitors could respond to our expanding industrial vending business with highly competitive platforms of their own. Such competition could negatively impact our ability to expand our industrial vending business or negatively impact the economics of that business.
The industrial, construction, and maintenance supply industry is consolidating, which could cause it to become more competitive and could negatively impact our business. The industrial, construction, and maintenance supply industry in North America is consolidating. This consolidation is being driven by customer needs and supplier capabilities, which could cause the industry to become more competitive as greater economies of scale are achieved by suppliers, or as competitors with new business models are willing and able to operate with lower gross profit on select products. Customers are increasingly aware of the total costs of fulfillment and of the need to have consistent sources of supply at multiple locations. We believe these customer needs could result in fewer suppliers as the remaining suppliers become larger and capable of being a consistent source of supply.
There can be no assurance we will be able in the future to take advantage effectively of the trend toward consolidation. The trend in our industry toward consolidation could make it more difficult for us to maintain our current gross profit and operating income. Furthermore, as our industrial and construction customers face increased foreign competition, and potentially lose business to foreign competitors or shift their operations overseas in an effort to reduce expenses, we may face increased difficulty in growing and maintaining our market share.
We are required to disclose the use of 'conflict minerals' in certain of the products we distribute, which imposes costs on us and could raise reputational and other risks. The SEC has promulgated rules in connection with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act regarding disclosure of the use of certain minerals, known as 'conflict minerals', that are mined from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjoining countries. These rules have required and will continue to require due diligence and disclosure efforts. There are and will continue to be costs associated with complying with these disclosure requirements, including costs to determine which of our products are subject to the rules and the source of any 'conflict minerals' used in those products. In addition, compliance with these rules could adversely affect the sourcing, supply, and pricing of materials used in those products. Also, we may face reputational challenges if we are unable to verify the origins for all 'conflict minerals' used in products through the procedures we have implemented. We may also encounter challenges to satisfy customers that may require all of the components of products purchased to be certified as conflict free. If we are not able to meet customer requirements, customers may choose to disqualify us as a supplier.
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ITEM 1B. | UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS. |
None.
ITEM 2. | PROPERTIES |
We own the following facilities in Winona, Minnesota:
Purpose | Tote Locations (ASRS)1 | Approximate Square Feet | ||||
Distribution center and home office | 253,000 | 259,000 | ||||
Manufacturing facility | 100,000 | |||||
Computer support center | 13,000 | |||||
Winona store | 15,000 | |||||
Winona product support facility | 55,000 | |||||
Rack and shelving storage | 42,000 | |||||
Multi-building complex which houses certain operations of the distribution group, the support services group, and the home office support group | 30,000 | |||||
Supplemental warehouse, office, and potential store space, which is subject to a pre-existing retail lease | 100,000 | |||||
1 | Total number of tote locations for small parts storage included in facilities with an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). |
We own the following facilities, excluding store locations, outside of Winona, Minnesota:
Purpose | Location | Tote Locations (ASRS)1 | Approximate Square Feet | ||||||
Distribution center and manufacturing facility | Indianapolis, Indiana | 539,000 | 2 | 525,000 | |||||
Storage facilities | Indianapolis, Indiana | 569,000 | |||||||
Distribution center | Atlanta, Georgia | 78,000 | 198,000 | ||||||
Distribution center | Dallas, Texas | 41,000 | 3 | 176,000 | |||||
Distribution center | Scranton, Pennsylvania | 87,000 | 189,000 | ||||||
Distribution center | Akron, Ohio | 74,000 | 152,000 | ||||||
Distribution center | Kansas City, Kansas | 300,000 | |||||||
Distribution center | Kitchener, Ontario, Canada | 105,000 | 142,000 | 4 | |||||
Distribution center | Kitchener, Ontario, Canada | 62,000 | 4 | ||||||
Distribution center | High Point, North Carolina | 256,000 | |||||||
Distribution center and manufacturing facility | Modesto, California | 83,000 | 328,000 | ||||||
Manufacturing facility | Rockford, Illinois | 100,000 | |||||||
Local re-distribution center and manufacturing facility | Johor, Malaysia | 27,000 | |||||||
Manufacturing facility | Wallingford, Connecticut | 187,000 | |||||||
1 | Total number of tote locations for small parts storage included in facilities with an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). |
2 | This property contains an ASRS with capacity of 52,000 pallet locations, in addition to the 539,000 tote locations for small parts noted above; 185,000 of these small part tote locations are located in the FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) automated replenishment facility ('T-Hub'), which is also located on this property. |
3 | This facility contains an ASRS with capacity of 14,000 pallet locations, in addition to the 41,000 tote locations for small parts noted above. |
4 | Our distribution center in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada moved to a new 142,000 square foot facility in 2014. The 62,000 square foot facility is being vacated and is currently for sale. |
In addition, we own 177 buildings that house our store locations in various cities throughout North America.
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All other buildings we occupy are leased. Leased stores range from approximately 3,000 to 10,000 square feet, with lease terms of up to 60 months (most initial lease terms are for 36 to 48 months). In addition to our leased store locations, we also lease the following facilities:
Purpose | Location | Approximate Square Feet | Lease Expiration Date | Remaining Lease Renewal Options | ||||
Distribution center | Seattle, Washington | 100,000 | April 2017 | Two | ||||
Distribution center | Salt Lake City, Utah | 74,000 | July 2017 | Two | ||||
Distribution center and packaging facility | Salt Lake City, Utah | 26,000 | July 2017 | One | ||||
Distribution center | Apodaca, Nuevo Leon, Mexico | 46,000 | March 2020 | None | ||||
Distribution center and manufacturing facility | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | 45,000 | July 2020 | One | ||||
Manufacturing facility | Houston, Texas | 21,000 | July 2019 | None | ||||
Local re-distribution center and manufacturing facility | Modrice, Czech Republic | 15,000 | July 2021 | None | ||||
If economic conditions are suitable, we will, in the future, consider purchasing store locations to house our older stores. It is anticipated the majority of new store locations will continue to be leased. It is our policy to negotiate relatively short lease terms to facilitate relocation of particular store operations, when desirable. Our experience has been that space suitable for our needs and available for leasing is sufficient.
ITEM 3. | LEGAL PROCEEDINGS |
A description of our legal proceedings, if any, is contained in Note 10 of the 'Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements'. The description of our legal proceedings, if any, in Note 10 is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 4. | MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES |
Not applicable.
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ITEM X. | EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT |
The executive officers of Fastenal Company are:
Name | Employee of Fastenal Since | Age | Position | ||
Leland J. Hein | 1985 | 54 | President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director | ||
Daniel L. Florness | 1996 | 51 | Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer | ||
James C. Jansen | 1992 | 44 | Executive Vice President – Operations | ||
Sheryl A. Lisowski | 1994 | 47 | Controller and Chief Accounting Officer | ||
Nicholas J. Lundquist | 1979 | 57 | Executive Vice President – Operations | ||
Kenneth R. Nance | 1992 | 50 | Executive Vice President – Sales | ||
Terry M. Owen | 1999 | 46 | Executive Vice President – E-Business | ||
Gary A. Polipnick | 1983 | 52 | Executive Vice President – Sales | ||
Steven A. Rucinski | 1980 | 57 | Executive Vice President – Sales | ||
Ashok Singh | 2001 | 52 | Executive Vice President – Information Technology | ||
John L. Soderberg | 1993 | 43 | Executive Vice President – Sales Operations & Support | ||
Reyne K. Wisecup | 1988 | 51 | Executive Vice President – Human Resources and Director | ||
Mr. Hein has been our chief executive officer since January 2015 and our president since July 2012. From November 2007 to July 2012, Mr. Hein was one of our executive vice presidents – sales. Mr. Hein’s responsibilities as an executive vice president – sales included sales and operational oversight over a substantial portion of our business. Prior to November 2007, Mr. Hein served in various sales leadership roles, most recently as leader of our Winona and Kansas City based regions. Mr. Hein has served as one of our directors since 2014.
Mr. Florness has been our executive vice president and chief financial officer since December 2002. From June 1996 to November 2002, Mr. Florness was our chief financial officer. In addition to his financial role, Mr. Florness' responsibilities also include oversight over our national accounts business.
Mr. Jansen has been an executive vice president – operations since December 2010. Since July 2012, Mr. Jansen's responsibilities have included oversight of our manufacturing. Prior to July 2012, Mr. Jansen's responsibilities also included distribution development. From November 2007 to December 2010, Mr. Jansen was our executive vice president – internal operations. From May 2005 to November 2007, Mr. Jansen served as leader of systems development (this role encompassed both information systems and distribution systems development). From April 2000 to April 2005, Mr. Jansen served in the sales leadership role of our Texas based region.
Ms. Lisowski has been our controller and chief accounting officer since October 2013. From March 2007 to October 2013, Ms. Lisowski served as our controller – accounting operations. Ms. Lisowski joined Fastenal in 1994 and, prior to March 2007, served in various roles of increasing responsibility within our finance and accounting team.
Mr. Lundquist has been an executive vice president – operations since July 2012. Mr. Lundquist's responsibilities include distribution development, product development, supplier development, and supply chain. From November 2007 to July 2012, Mr. Lundquist was one of our executive vice presidents – sales. Mr. Lundquist’s responsibilities as an executive vice president – sales included sales and operational oversight over a substantial portion of our business. From December 2002 to November 2007, Mr. Lundquist was our executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Mr. Nance has been an executive vice president – sales since July 2012. Mr. Nance's responsibilities include sales and operational oversight of our business in the eastern United States and Canada. From June 2005 to July 2012, Mr. Nance served as regional vice president of our Texas based region. Prior to June 2005, Mr. Nance served in various sales leadership roles.
Mr. Owen has been our executive vice president – e-business since May 2014. Mr. Owen’s responsibilities include FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) and e-commerce sales. From December 2007 to May 2014, Mr. Owen served as regional vice president of our Texas based and Mexico regions. Prior to December 2007, Mr. Owen served in various distribution center leadership roles.
Mr. Polipnick has been an executive vice president – sales since July 2012. Mr. Polipnick's responsibilities include sales and operational oversight of our business in the western United States. From November 2007 to July 2012, Mr. Polipnick served as regional vice president of our Winona based region. Prior to November 2007, Mr. Polipnick served in various sales leadership roles.
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Mr. Rucinski has been an executive vice president – sales since November 2007. Mr. Rucinski’s responsibilities include sales and operational oversight over our international business (other than Canada). Prior to November 2007, Mr. Rucinski served in various sales leadership roles, most recently as leader of national accounts. Mr. Rucinski has indicated his intention to retire during 2015.
Mr. Singh has been our executive vice president – information technology since January 2011. Mr. Singh joined Fastenal in 2001 and, prior to January 2011, served in various roles of increasing responsibility in the administration and application development areas within our information technology group.
Mr. Soderberg has been our executive vice president – sales operations & support since May 2014. Mr. Soderberg’s responsibilities include industry sales, pricing, contracts, and sales support. From April 2010 to May 2014, Mr. Soderberg was one of our vice presidents – sales. From April 2005 to April 2010, Mr. Soderberg served as regional vice president of our Washington based region. Prior to April 2005, Mr. Soderberg served in various sales leadership roles.
Ms. Wisecup has been our executive vice president – human resources since November 2007. Prior to November 2007, Ms. Wisecup served in various support roles, most recently as director of employee development. Ms. Wisecup has served as one of our directors since 2000.
The executive officers are elected by our board of directors for a term of one year and serve until their successors are elected and qualified. None of our executive officers is related to any other such executive officer or to any of our directors.
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PART II
ITEM 5. | MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS, AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES |
Common Stock Data
Our shares are traded on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol ‘FAST’. As of January 23, 2015, there were approximately 1,200 record holders of our common stock, which includes nominees or broker dealers holding stock on behalf of an estimated 173,000 beneficial owners.
The following table sets forth, by quarter, the high and low closing sale price1 of our shares on The NASDAQ Stock Market for 2014 and 2013.
2014: | High | Low | 2013: | High | Low | ||||
First quarter | $50.43 | 42.70 | First quarter | $53.18 | 46.47 | ||||
Second quarter | $51.20 | 47.80 | Second quarter | $52.18 | 44.95 | ||||
Third quarter | $50.08 | 43.74 | Third quarter | $50.98 | 43.99 | ||||
Fourth quarter | $48.21 | 40.78 | Fourth quarter | $51.89 | 45.62 | ||||
1 The closing sale price was obtained from Shareholder.com, a division of Nasdaq OMX.
The following table sets forth our dividend payout (per share basis) in each of the last three years:
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | |||||||||
First quarter | $ | 0.25 | $ | 0.10 | $ | 0.17 | |||||
Second quarter | 0.25 | 0.20 | 0.17 | ||||||||
Third quarter | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.19 | ||||||||
Fourth quarter | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.21 | ||||||||
Total regular dividend | 1.00 | 0.80 | 0.74 | ||||||||
Supplemental* | — | — | 0.50 | ||||||||
Total | $ | 1.00 | $ | 0.80 | $ | 1.24 | |||||
*Due to income tax rate uncertainties in the United States, we paid a supplemental dividend in December 2012.
On January 14, 2015, we announced a quarterly dividend of $0.28 per share to be paid on February 27, 2015 to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 30, 2015. Our board of directors intends to continue paying quarterly dividends, provided that any future determination as to payment of dividends will depend upon the financial condition and results of operations of the Company and such other factors as are deemed relevant by the board of directors.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
The table below sets forth information regarding purchases of our common stock during each of the last three months of 2014:
(a) | (b) | (c) | (d) | |||||
Period | Total Number of Shares Purchased | Average Price Paid per Share | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | Maximum Number (or Approximate Dollar Value) of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs | ||||
October 1-31, 2014 | 300,000 | $42.73 | 300,000 | 700,000 | ||||
November 1-30, 2014 | 300,000 | $44.76 | 300,000 | 400,000 | ||||
December 1-31, 2014 | 0 | $0.00 | 0 | 400,000 | ||||
Total | 600,000 | $43.74 | 600,000 | 400,000 | ||||
Purchases of shares of our common stock earlier in 2014 are described later in this Form 10-K under the heading ‘Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations’.
On January 14, 2015, our board of directors increased the maximum number of shares that may yet be purchased from 400,000 shares to 2,000,000 shares.
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The Fastenal Company Common Stock Comparative Performance Graph
Set forth below is a graph comparing, for the five years ended December 31, 2014, the yearly cumulative total shareholder return on our common stock with the yearly cumulative total shareholder return of the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones US Industrial Suppliers Index.
The comparison of total shareholder returns in the performance graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 31, 2009 in Fastenal Company, the S&P 500 Index, and the Dow Jones US Industrial Suppliers Index, and that dividends were reinvested when and as paid.
Comparison of Five Year Cumulative Total Return Among Fastenal Company, the S&P 500 Index, and the Dow Jones US Industrial Suppliers Index
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | ||||||
Fastenal Company | 100.00 | 147.68 | 219.19 | 241.26 | 249.84 | 255.72 | |||||
S&P 500 Index | 100.00 | 115.06 | 117.49 | 136.30 | 180.44 | 205.14 | |||||
Dow Jones US Industrial Suppliers Index | 100.00 | 142.09 | 188.95 | 206.06 | 238.54 | 238.41 | |||||
Note - The graph and index table above were obtained from Zachs SEC Compliance Services Group.
ITEM 6. | SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA |
Incorporated herein by reference is Ten-Year Selected Financial Data on pages 4 and 5 of Fastenal’s 2014 Annual Report to Shareholders of which this Form 10-K forms a part, a portion of which is filed as Exhibit 13 to this Form 10-K.
ITEM 7. | MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS |
The following is management’s discussion and analysis of certain significant factors that have affected our financial position and operating results during the periods included in the accompanying consolidated financial statements. (Dollar amounts are in thousands except for per share amounts and where otherwise noted.)
BUSINESS AND OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
Fastenal is a North American leader in the wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies. We distribute these supplies through a network of approximately 2,700 company owned stores. Most of our customers are in the manufacturing and non-residential construction markets. The manufacturing market includes both original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and maintenance and repair operations (MRO). The non-residential construction market includes general, electrical, plumbing,
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sheet metal, and road contractors. Other users of our product include farmers, truckers, railroads, oil exploration, production, and refinement companies, mining companies, federal, state, and local governmental entities, schools, and certain retail trades. Geographically, our stores and customers are primarily located in North America.
BUSINESS DISCUSSION
The following pages contain a marketplace overview, and a general sales growth and product line mix discussion, for each of the last three years. This is followed by a more in depth discussion of the following:
1. | Monthly sales changes, sequential trends, and end market performance – a recap of our recent sales trends and some insight into the activities with different end markets. |
2. | Growth drivers of our business – a recap of how we grow our business. |
3. | Profit drivers of our business – a recap of how we increase our profits. |
4. | Statement of earnings information – a recap of the components of our income statement. |
5. | Operational working capital, balance sheet, and cash flow – a recap of the operational working capital utilized in our business, and the related cash flow. |
While reading these items, it is helpful to appreciate several aspects of our marketplace: (1) it's big, the North American marketplace for industrial supplies is estimated to be in excess of $160 billion per year (and we have expanded beyond North America), (2) no company has a significant portion of this market, (3) many of the products we sell are individually inexpensive, (4) when our customer needs something quickly or unexpectedly our local store is a quick source, (5) the cost and time to manage and procure the products we sell is meaningful, (6) the cost to move these products, many of which are bulky, can be significant, (7) many customers would prefer to reduce their number of suppliers to simplify their business, and (8) many customers would prefer to utilize various technologies to improve availability and reduce waste.
Our motto is Growth through Customer Service®. This is important given the points noted above. We believe in efficient markets – to us, this means we can grow our market share if we provide the greatest value to our customers. We believe our ability to grow is amplified if we can service our customers at the closest economic point of contact. For us, this 'closest economic point of contact' is the local store; therefore, our focus centers on understanding our customers' day, their opportunities, and their obstacles.
The concept of growth is simple, find more customers every day and increase your activity with them. However, execution is hard work. First, we recruit service minded individuals to support our customers and their business. Second, we operate in a decentralized fashion to help identify the greatest value for our customers. Third, we build a great machine behind the store to operate efficiently and to help identify new business solutions. Fourth, we do these things every day. Finally, we strive to generate strong profits; these profits produce the cash flow necessary to fund our growth and to support the needs of our customers.
SALES GROWTH
Net sales and growth rates in net sales were as follows:
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | |||||||
Net sales | $ | 3,733,507 | 3,326,106 | 3,133,577 | |||||
Percentage change | 12.2 | % | 6.1 | % | 13.3 | % | |||
The increase in net sales in both 2014 and 2013 came primarily from higher unit sales. Our growth in net sales was impacted by slight inflationary price changes in our non-fastener products and some price deflation in our fastener products, with the net impact being a slight drag on growth. Our growth in net sales was not meaningfully impacted by the introduction of new products or services, with one exception. Over the last several years, our FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) initiative has stimulated faster growth with a subset of our customers (discussed later in this document). The higher unit sales resulted primarily from increases in sales at older store locations (discussed below and again later in this document) and to a lesser degree the opening of new store locations in the last several years. The growth in net sales at the older store locations was due to the growth drivers of our business (discussed later in this document). The change in currencies in foreign countries (primarily Canada) relative to the United States dollar lowered our daily sales growth rate by 0.5% and 0.2% in 2014 and 2013, respectively. The added growth in 2014 was largely related to two things – the expansion, which began in the latter half of 2013, in the number of our store employees and the number of district and regional leaders supporting our stores, all in an effort to generate more selling energy within our stores, and a stabilization in our OEM fastener business.
The increase in net sales in 2012 came primarily from higher unit sales. Our growth in net sales was impacted by price changes in our products, but the impact was limited. Our growth in net sales was not meaningfully impacted by the introduction of new
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products or services, but was helped by initiatives such as FAST Solutions® (industrial vending). The higher unit sales resulted primarily from increases in sales at older store locations (discussed below and again later in this document) and to a lesser degree the opening of new store locations in the last several years. The growth in net sales at the older store locations was hindered by weakness in the industrial production and non-residential construction industries served by our Company. The change in currencies in foreign countries (primarily Canada) relative to the United States dollar lowered our daily sales growth rate by 0.1% in 2012.
The impact of the economy is best reflected in the growth performance of our stores opened greater than ten years ago (store sites opened as follows: 2014 group – opened 2004 and earlier, 2013 group – opened 2003 and earlier, and 2012 group – opened 2002 and earlier) and opened greater than five years ago (store sites opened as follows: 2014 group – opened 2009 and earlier, 2013 group – opened 2008 and earlier, and 2012 group – opened 2007 and earlier). These two groups of stores are more cyclical due to the increased market share they enjoy in their local markets. The stores opened greater than two years ago represent a consistent ‘same store’ view of our business (store sites opened as follows: 2014 group – opened 2012 and earlier, 2013 group – opened 2011 and earlier, and 2012 group – opened 2010 and earlier). The daily sales change for each of these groups was as follows:
Store Age | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | ||
Opened greater than 10 years | 10.5% | 2.1% | 8.1% | ||
Opened greater than 5 years | 10.9% | 3.6% | 9.8% | ||
Opened greater than 2 years | 11.5% | 4.4% | 10.8% | ||
Note: The age groups above are measured as of the last day of each respective year.
Stores opened in 2014 contributed approximately $9,762 (or 0.3%) to 2014 net sales. Stores opened in 2013 contributed approximately $52,033 (or 1.4%) to 2014 net sales and approximately $18,620 (or 0.6%) to 2013 net sales. The rate of growth in sales of store locations generally levels off after they have been open for five years, and, as stated earlier, the sales generated at our older store locations typically vary more with the economy than do the sales of younger stores.
SALES BY PRODUCT LINE
The approximate mix of sales from the fastener product line and from the other product lines was as follows:
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | |||
Fastener product line | 40% | 42% | 44% | ||
Other product lines | 60% | 58% | 56% | ||
The decrease in our fastener sales as a percentage of total sales has been driven by the continued success of our non-fastener product lines, which we began to add in the 1990s, and by the growth of our FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) program. Since we sell primarily non-fastener products in our industrial vending machines, this program has led to greater resilience to weak industrial production of our non-fastener business compared to our fastener business.
MONTHLY SALES CHANGES, SEQUENTIAL TRENDS, AND END MARKET PERFORMANCE
This section focuses on three distinct views of our business – monthly sales changes, sequential trends, and end market performance. The first discussion regarding monthly sales changes provides a good mechanical view of our business based on the age of our stores. The second discussion provides a framework for understanding the sequential trends (that is, comparing a month to the immediately preceding month, and also looking at the cumulative change from an earlier benchmark month) in our business. Finally, we believe the third discussion regarding end market performance provides insight into activities with our various types of customers.
Monthly Sales Changes:
All company sales – During the months noted below, all of our selling locations, when combined, had daily sales growth rates of (compared to the same month in the preceding year):
Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2014 | 6.7 | % | 7.7 | % | 11.6 | % | 10.0 | % | 13.5 | % | 12.7 | % | 14.7 | % | 15.0 | % | 12.9 | % | 14.6 | % | 15.3 | % | 17.4 | % | |||||||||||
2013 | 6.7 | % | 8.2 | % | 5.1 | % | 4.8 | % | 5.3 | % | 6.0 | % | 2.9 | % | 7.2 | % | 5.7 | % | 7.7 | % | 8.2 | % | 6.7 | % | |||||||||||
2012 | 21.3 | % | 20.0 | % | 19.3 | % | 17.3 | % | 13.1 | % | 14.0 | % | 12.1 | % | 12.0 | % | 12.9 | % | 6.8 | % | 8.2 | % | 9.7 | % | |||||||||||
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Stores opened greater than two years – Our stores opened greater than two years (store sites opened as follows: 2014 group – opened 2012 and earlier, 2013 group – opened 2011 and earlier, and 2012 group – opened 2010 and earlier) represent a consistent 'same-store' view of our business. During the months noted below, the stores opened greater than two years had daily sales growth rates of (compared to the same month in the preceding year):
Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2014 | 5.5 | % | 6.5 | % | 10.2 | % | 8.4 | % | 12.1 | % | 11.4 | % | 13.4 | % | 14.0 | % | 11.8 | % | 13.5 | % | 14.0 | % | 16.5 | % | |||||||||||
2013 | 5.0 | % | 6.5 | % | 3.4 | % | 3.1 | % | 3.5 | % | 4.3 | % | 1.4 | % | 5.5 | % | 4.2 | % | 6.1 | % | 6.2 | % | 4.9 | % | |||||||||||
2012 | 18.8 | % | 17.1 | % | 16.8 | % | 14.5 | % | 10.1 | % | 11.1 | % | 9.1 | % | 8.6 | % | 9.8 | % | 3.8 | % | 5.1 | % | 6.6 | % | |||||||||||
Stores opened greater than five years – The impact of the economy, over time, is best reflected in the growth performance of our stores opened greater than five years (store sites opened as follows: 2014 group – opened 2009 and earlier, 2013 group – opened 2008 and earlier, and 2012 group – opened 2007 and earlier). This group, which represented about 90% of our total sales in 2014, is more cyclical due to the increased market share they enjoy in their local markets. During the months noted below, the stores opened greater than five years had daily sales growth rates of (compared to the same month in the preceding year):
Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2014 | 4.6 | % | 5.4 | % | 9.5 | % | 7.7 | % | 11.5 | % | 10.8 | % | 12.9 | % | 13.4 | % | 11.7 | % | 13.3 | % | 13.6 | % | 16.2 | % | |||||||||||
2013 | 3.2 | % | 5.6 | % | 2.3 | % | 2.0 | % | 2.7 | % | 3.4 | % | 0.6 | % | 4.7 | % | 3.2 | % | 5.3 | % | 6.1 | % | 4.8 | % | |||||||||||
2012 | 17.4 | % | 15.8 | % | 15.7 | % | 13.7 | % | 9.0 | % | 10.2 | % | 8.3 | % | 7.9 | % | 8.5 | % | 2.6 | % | 4.6 | % | 5.6 | % | |||||||||||
Summarizing comments – There are three distinct influences to our growth: (1) execution, (2) currency fluctuations, and (3) economic fluctuations. This discussion centers on (2) and (3).
The change in currencies in foreign countries (primarily Canada) relative to the United States dollar impacted our growth over the last several years. During the years 2014, 2013, and 2012, it lowered our growth by 0.5%, 0.2%, and 0.1%, respectively.
During 2012, the growth in the first three and a half months generally continued the relative strength we saw in 2011. Then we began to experience several distinct economic slowdowns. The first occurred in the late April/May time frame, and then moderated until September 2012. The second occurred in the October/November time frame. This was exaggerated by the impact of Hurricane Sandy and an unusual business day comparison in October (23 days in 2012 versus 21 days in 2011 - the maintenance portion of our business is often linked to monthly spend patterns of our customers, which are not as business day dependent, this can dilute the daily growth picture given the change in business day divisor). The third occurred in the spring of 2013. This involved our fastener product line and our construction business (primarily non-residential construction). This third slowdown, similar to the first two listed, mirrored or slightly led some softening in the PMI Index. The PMI Index is a composite index of economic activity in the United States manufacturing sector. It is published by the Institute for Supply Management and is available at http://www.ism.ws/. The fastener piece was heavily impacted by our industrial production business. These customers utilize our fasteners in the manufacture/assembly of their finished products. The end markets with the most pronounced weakening included heavy machinery manufacturers with exposure to: mining, military, agriculture, and construction. The fourth and fifth occurred in July 2013 and December 2013. The daily sales growth in July 2013 and December 2013 were negatively impacted by the timing of the July 4th holiday (Thursday in 2013, Wednesday in 2012, Monday in 2011) and the Christmas/New Year holiday (Wednesday in 2013, Tuesday in 2012, and Sunday in 2011). This resulted in a 'lone' business day on Friday, July 5, 2013, in which many of our customers were closed, and three distinct one to two day work periods in the last two weeks of December 2013. The December 2013 impact was amplified due to poor weather conditions.
Our daily sales growth trends have generally improved since September 2013. This was largely related to changing comparisons to the prior year and to the improving sequential patterns noted in the next discussion. Our sales to customers engaged in light and medium duty manufacturing (largely related to consumer products) have improved since late 2013; this makes sense given the trends in the PMI Index since that time.
In the first quarter of 2014, our sales growth was hampered in January and February due to a weak economy and foreign exchange rate fluctuations (primarily related to the Canadian dollar); however, the biggest impact was a severe winter in North America and its negative impact on our customers and our trucking network. In March 2014, the weak economy and negative foreign exchange rate fluctuations continued; however, the weather normalized and our daily sales growth expanded to 11.6%. This double digit growth in March was helped by the Easter timing (April in 2014), but the real story is good people, good execution, and minimal negative weather impacts. Since March 2014, our double digit growth has continued. In the second quarter of 2014, the negative impact of the Easter timing was felt, and then a 'less noisy' picture emerged in May and June. Our sales to customers engaged in heavy machinery manufacturing (primarily serving the mining, military, agricultural, and
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construction end markets), which represents approximately one fifth of our business, had a very weak 2013, but stabilized late in 2013 and has improved in 2014. Since May 2014, our stores opened greater than five years have enjoyed double digit growth in every month. This is a strong indicator of the strength of the marketplace.
Sequential Trends:
We find it helpful to think about the monthly sequential changes in our business using the analogy of climbing a stairway – This stairway has several predictable landings where there is a pause in the sequential gain (i.e. April, July, and October to December), but generally speaking, climbs from January to October. The October landing then establishes the benchmark for the start of the next year.
History has identified these landings in our business cycle. They generally relate to months with impaired business days (certain holidays). The first landing centers on Easter, which alternates between March and April (Easter occurred in April 2014, March 2013, and April 2012 – in 2015, Easter will occur in April), the second landing centers on July 4th, and the third landing centers on the approach of winter with its seasonal impact on primarily our construction business and with the Christmas/New Year holidays. The holidays we noted impact the trends because they either move from month-to-month or because they move around during the week (the July 4th and Christmas/New Year holiday impacts are examples).
The table below shows the pattern to the sequential change in our daily sales. The line labeled 'Benchmark' is an historical average of our sequential daily sales change for the period 1998 to 2013, excluding 2008 and 2009. We believe this time frame will serve to show the historical pattern and could serve as a benchmark for current performance. We excluded the 2008 to 2009 time frame because it contains an extreme economic event and we don't believe it is comparable. The '2014', '2013', and '2012' lines represent our actual sequential daily sales changes. The '14Delta', '13Delta', and '12Delta' lines indicate the difference between the 'Benchmark' and the actual results in the respective year.
Jan.(1) | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Cumulative Change from Jan. to Oct. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Benchmark | 0.8 | % | 2.2 | % | 3.8 | % | 0.4 | % | 3.1 | % | 2.7 | % | -2.1 | % | 2.5 | % | 3.7 | % | -1.2 | % | 15.9% | ||||||||||
2014 | -1.4 | % | 3.0 | % | 7.1 | % | -2.6 | % | 4.2 | % | 2.5 | % | -3.8 | % | 5.8 | % | 1.0 | % | -1.5 | % | 16.2% | ||||||||||
14Delta | -2.2 | % | 0.8 | % | 3.3 | % | -3.0 | % | 1.1 | % | -0.2 | % | -1.7 | % | 3.3 | % | -2.7 | % | -0.3 | % | 0.3% | ||||||||||
2013 | -0.4 | % | 2.0 | % | 3.4 | % | -1.1 | % | 1.0 | % | 3.2 | % | -5.5 | % | 5.5 | % | 2.9 | % | -2.9 | % | 8.2% | ||||||||||
13Delta | -1.2 | % | -0.2 | % | -0.4 | % | -1.5 | % | -2.1 | % | 0.5 | % | -3.4 | % | 3.0 | % | -0.8 | % | -1.7 | % | -7.7% | ||||||||||
2012 | -0.3 | % | 0.5 | % | 6.4 | % | -0.8 | % | 0.5 | % | 2.5 | % | -2.7 | % | 1.3 | % | 4.3 | % | -4.8 | % | 7.1% | ||||||||||
12Delta | -1.1 | % | -1.7 | % | 2.6 | % | -1.2 | % | -2.6 | % | -0.2 | % | -0.6 | % | -1.2 | % | 0.6 | % | -3.6 | % | -8.8% | ||||||||||
(1) | The January figures represent the percentage change from the previous October, whereas the remaining figures represent the percentage change from the previous month. |
A graph of the sequential daily sales change pattern discussed above, starting with a base of '100' in the previous October and ending with the next October, would be as follows:
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End Market Performance:
Fluctuations in end market business – The sequential trends noted above were directly linked to fluctuations in our end markets. To place this in perspective – approximately 50% of our business has historically been with customers engaged in some type of manufacturing. The daily sales to these customers grew, when compared to the same period in the prior year, as follows:
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Annual | ||||||||||
2014 | 9.0 | % | 11.2 | % | 13.7 | % | 13.8 | % | 12.0 | % | ||||
2013 | 7.0 | % | 5.9 | % | 4.7 | % | 7.2 | % | 6.3 | % | ||||
2012 | 20.3 | % | 15.8 | % | 14.0 | % | 9.7 | % | 14.9 | % | ||||
Our manufacturing business consists of two subsets: the industrial production business (this is business where we supply products that become part of the finished goods produced by our customers and is sometimes referred to as OEM - original equipment manufacturing) and the maintenance portion (this is business where we supply products that maintain the facility or the equipment of our customers engaged in manufacturing and is sometimes referred to as MRO - maintenance, repair, and other). The industrial business is more fastener centered, while the maintenance portion is represented by all product categories.
The best way to understand the change in our industrial production business is to examine the results in our fastener product line (approximately 40% of our business) which is heavily influenced by changes in our business with heavy equipment manufacturers (discussed earlier in this document). From a company perspective, sales of fasteners grew, when compared to the same period in the prior year, as follows (note: this information includes all end markets):
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Annual | ||||||||||
2014 | 1.6 | % | 5.5 | % | 9.9 | % | 11.4 | % | 6.9 | % | ||||
2013 | 1.7 | % | 1.9 | % | 1.0 | % | 1.9 | % | 1.6 | % | ||||
2012 | 15.4 | % | 8.0 | % | 6.0 | % | 2.6 | % | 7.8 | % | ||||
By contrast, the best way to understand the change in the maintenance portion of the manufacturing business is to examine the results in our non-fastener product lines. From a company perspective, sales of non-fasteners grew, when compared to the same period in the prior year, as follows (note: this information includes all end markets):
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Annual | ||||||||||
2014 | 14.2 | % | 17.1 | % | 17.6 | % | 19.0 | % | 17.2 | % | ||||
2013 | 10.8 | % | 8.5 | % | 8.9 | % | 12.0 | % | 10.1 | % | ||||
2012 | 25.1 | % | 21.1 | % | 18.0 | % | 13.6 | % | 19.2 | % | ||||
The non-fastener business demonstrated greater relative resilience over the last several years, when compared to our fastener business and to the distribution industry in general, due to our strong FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) program; this is discussed in greater detail later in this document. However, this business was not immune to the impact of a weak industrial environment.
Our non-residential construction customers have historically represented 20% to 25% of our business. The daily sales to these customers grew, when compared to the same period in the prior year, as follows:
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Annual | ||||||||||
2014 | 2.9 | % | 7.5 | % | 9.3 | % | 12.6 | % | 7.8 | % | ||||
2013 | 2.9 | % | 0.7 | % | 3.9 | % | 2.8 | % | 2.5 | % | ||||
2012 | 17.1 | % | 12.7 | % | 8.2 | % | 4.2 | % | 10.3 | % | ||||
We believe the weakness in the economy in the fourth quarter of 2012, throughout 2013, and during early 2014, particularly in the non-residential construction market, was amplified by global economic uncertainty combined with economic policy uncertainty in the United States. This weakness was amplified by severe winter weather conditions in January and February 2014.
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A graph of the sequential daily sales trends to these two end markets in 2014, 2013, and 2012, starting with a base of '100' in the previous October and ending with the next October, would be as follows:
Manufacturing
Non-Residential Construction
GROWTH DRIVERS OF OUR BUSINESS
Note – Dollar amounts in this section are presented in whole dollars, not thousands.
We grow by continuously adding customers and by increasing the activity with each customer. We believe this growth is enhanced by great people located in close proximity to our customers. This allows us to provide a range of services and product availability that our competitors can't easily match. Historically, we expanded our reach by opening stores at a very fast pace. These openings began in the United States and expanded beyond the United States beginning in the mid 1990's.
For a little perspective, we began our business in 1967 with an idea to sell nuts and bolts (fasteners) through vending machines. We soon learned the technology of the 1960's wasn't ready, and also learned a lot of products didn't fit, so we went to 'Plan B'; sell to business users with a direct sales force. It took us a number of years to 'work out the bugs', but ten years later we began to pick up the pace of store openings. After another ten years of expansion we had approximately 50 stores and sales of about
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$20 million. Our need for cash to fund our growth was growing, as was our desire to allow employee ownership. This led us to a public offering in 1987.
In our first ten years of being public (1987 to 1997), we opened stores at an annual rate approaching 30% per year. In the next ten years (1997 to 2007), we opened stores at an annual rate of approximately 10% to 15% and, since 2007, we opened stores at an annual rate of approximately 1% to 8%. We opened 24 stores in 2014, an annual rate of approximately 1%, and currently expect to open approximately 20 to 30 stores in 2015, an annual rate similar to 2014.
During our almost 50 years of business existence, we have constantly evolved to better serve the market (as is described in the paragraphs below) and have always been willing to challenge our approach. In our first 20 to 25 years, we closed several store locations because we felt the market was insufficient to operate a profitable 'fastener only' business. Every one of those locations was subsequently ‘reopened’ when our business model evolved to serve these markets profitably. During the last 20 to 25 years, we have enjoyed continued success with our store-based model, and we continue to challenge our approach. Based on this approach, we have closed approximately 85 stores in the last ten years - not because they weren’t successful, but rather because we felt we had a better approach to growth. In the first six months of 2014, we continued to challenge our approach and closed about 20 stores (all but four of these locations were in close proximity to another Fastenal store). In the second quarter of 2014, we took a hard look at our business and identified another 45 stores to close in the second half of 2014 (all but eight of these locations were in close proximity to another Fastenal store). During the second half of 2014, we identified some additional stores for closure and closed 52 stores in total. Several items we think are noteworthy: the group of stores we identified for closure in the second half of 2014 was profitable in the first quarter of 2014 (our analysis measurement period); those stores operated with average sales of about $36 thousand per month. We chose to close this group because we felt this was simply a better approach to growing our business profitably.
There is a short-term price for closing these stores; and, since we believe we will maintain the vast majority of the sales associated with these locations and since most of the impacted employees have a nearby store from which to operate, the price primarily relates to the future commitments related to the leased locations. During the second quarter of 2014, we recorded the impaired future costs related to these commitments. The expense was not material as these locations have relatively short lease commitments and minimal leasehold improvements. We use the term closed; however, we consider them to be consolidated into another location since the vast majority are in close proximity to another store.
During the years, our expanding footprint has provided us with greater access to more customers, and we have continued to diversify our growth drivers. This was done to provide existing store personnel with more tools to grow their business organically, and the results of this are reflected in our earlier discussion on sales growth at stores opened greater than five years. In the early 1990's, we began to expand our product lines beyond primarily fasteners, and we added new product knowledge to our bench (the non-fastener products now represent about 60% of our sales). This was our first big effort to diversify our growth drivers. The next step began in the mid to late 1990's when we began to add sales personnel with certain specialties or focus. This began with our National Accounts group in 1995, and, over time, has expanded to include individuals dedicated to: (1) sales related to our internal manufacturing division, (2) government sales, (3) internet sales, (4) construction, (5) specific products (most recently metalworking), and (6) FAST Solutions® (industrial vending). Another step occurred at our sales locations (this includes Fastenal stores as well as strategic account stores and in-plant locations) and at our distribution centers, and began with a targeted merchandising and inventory placement strategy that included our 'Customer Service Project' approximately twelve years ago and our 'Master Stocking Hub' initiative approximately seven years ago. These strategies allowed us to better target where to stock certain products (local store, regional distribution center, master stocking hub, or supplier) and allowed us to improve our fulfillment, lower our freight costs, and improve our ability to serve a broader range of customers. During 2013 and 2014, we expanded our store based inventory offering around select industries (with an emphasis on fasteners, construction products, and safety products) and beginning in the latter half of 2013 we expanded two key employee groups: (1) the number of employees working in our stores and (2) the number of district and regional leaders supporting our stores. To improve the efficiency, accuracy, and capacity of our distribution centers, we made significant investments into distribution automation over the last several years (a majority of our facilities are now automated, and greater than 80% of our picking occurs at an automated distribution center). Finally, our high frequency distribution center, internally known as T-HUB, is now operational to support vending and other high frequency selling activities. The theme that shines through in all these changes is a simple one – invest into and support our sales machine – the local store.
Over the last several years, our FAST Solutions® (industrial vending) operation has been an expanding component of our store-based business. We believe industrial vending will be an important chapter in the Fastenal story; we also believe it has the potential to be transformative to industrial distribution, and that we have a 'first mover' advantage. Given this, we have been investing to maximize the advantage.
Our expanded industrial vending portfolio consists of 19 different vending devices, with the FAST 5000 device, our helix based machine (think candy machine), representing approximately 40% of the installed machines. We have learned much about these devices over the last several years and currently have target monthly revenue ranging from under $1,000 to in excess of $3,000
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per device. The following two tables provide two views of our data: (1) actual device count regardless of the type of machine and (2) ‘machine equivalent' count based on the weighted target monthly revenue of each device (compared to the FAST 5000 device, which has a $2,000 monthly revenue target). For example, the 12-door locker, with target monthly revenue of $750, would be counted as ‘0.375 machine equivalent’ (0.375 = $750/$2,000).
The industrial vending information related to contracts signed during each period was as follows:
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Annual | ||||||||||||
Device count signed during the period | 2014 | 4,025 | 4,137 | 4,072 | 4,108 | 16,342 | ||||||||||
2013 | 6,568 | 6,084 | 4,836 | 4,226 | 21,714 | |||||||||||
2012 | 6,646 | 6,818 | 7,871 | 6,715 | 28,050 | |||||||||||
2011 | 1,812 | 2,710 | 2,930 | 2,753 | 10,205 | |||||||||||
'Machine equivalent' count signed during the period | 2014 | 2,974 | 3,179 | 3,189 | 3,243 | 12,585 | ||||||||||
2013 | 4,825 | 4,505 | 3,656 | 3,244 | 16,230 | |||||||||||
2012 | 3,827 | 3,926 | 4,581 | 4,739 | 17,073 | |||||||||||
2011 | 1,264 | 1,915 | 2,035 | 1,880 | 7,094 | |||||||||||
The industrial vending information related to installed machines at the end of each period was as follows:
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | ||||||||||||
Device count installed at the end of the period | 2014 | 42,153 | 43,761 | 45,596 | 46,855 | ||||||||||
2013 | 32,007 | 36,452 | 39,180 | 40,775 | |||||||||||
2012 | 12,600 | 16,964 | 21,998 | 26,975 | |||||||||||
2011 | 3,227 | 4,793 | 7,062 | 9,462 | |||||||||||
'Machine equivalent' count installed at the end of the | 2014 | 30,326 | 31,713 | 33,296 | 34,529 | ||||||||||
period | 2013 | 22,020 | 25,512 | 27,818 | 29,262 | ||||||||||
2012 | 8,842 | 11,604 | 14,880 | 18,395 | |||||||||||
2011 | 2,462 | 3,548 | 5,154 | 6,771 | |||||||||||
The following table includes some additional statistics regarding our sales and sales growth:
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | ||||||||||||
Percent of total net sales to customers with | 2014 | 37.8 | % | 37.0 | % | 37.8 | % | 39.3 | % | ||||||
industrial vending1 | 2013 | 27.5 | % | 30.0 | % | 33.3 | % | 36.6 | % | ||||||
2012 | 17.8 | % | 20.8 | % | 23.2 | % | 25.8 | % | |||||||
2011 | 8.9 | % | 10.5 | % | 13.1 | % | 15.7 | % | |||||||
Daily sales growth to customers with | 2014 | 19.7 | % | 20.9 | % | 21.9 | % | 20.0 | % | ||||||
industrial vending2 | 2013 | 23.9 | % | 18.9 | % | 15.2 | % | 18.7 | % | ||||||
2012 | 33.9 | % | 34.3 | % | 32.9 | % | 28.6 | % | |||||||
2011 | 50.6 | % | 43.9 | % | 42.5 | % | 40.7 | % | |||||||
1 The percentage of total sales (vended and traditional) to customers currently using a vending solution.
2 The growth in total sales (vended and traditional) to customers currently using a vending solution compared to the same period in the preceding year.
In addition to the industrial vending operation noted above, which primarily relates to our non-fastener business, we also provide bin stock programs (also known as ‘keep fill’ programs in the industry) to numerous customers with respect to our fastener business. This business, which relates to both our maintenance customers (MRO fasteners and non-fasteners) and original equipment manufacturers (OEM fasteners), has many similar attributes to our industrial vending relationships. These attributes include a strong relationship with these customers, where we are often their preferred supplier, and a frequent level of business transactions. This business is performed without the aid of a vending machine, but does make use of the latest
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scanning technologies, scale systems, and our fully integrated distribution network to manage the supply chain for all sizes of customers. In recent years, we have begun to refer to this business as FMI (Fastenal Managed Inventory).
PROFIT DRIVERS OF OUR BUSINESS
As we state several times in this document, profit is important to us. For a distribution business profit and cash flow go hand in hand, and this cash flow funds our growth and creates value for our customers, our employees, our suppliers, and our shareholders. We grow our profits by continuously working to grow sales and to improve our relative profitability. We also grow our profits by allowing our inherent profitability to shine through – we refer to this as the 'pathway to profit'. The distinction is important.
We achieve improvements in our relative profitability by improving our gross profit, by structurally lowering our operating expenses, or both. Measured as a percentage of sales, the gross profit component generally decreases as the average monthly sales increase. This is due to the mix impact of larger customers. However, typically the operating expense component improves more as the average monthly sales increase, which paves our 'pathway to profit'. In most years we advance on this 'pathway to profit' by increasing our average store size (measured in terms of monthly sales), and by allowing the changing store mix to improve our profits. This is best explained by comparing the varying profitability of our 'traditional' stores in the table below. The average store size for the group, and the average age, number of stores, and pre-tax earnings data by store size for the fourth quarter of the last three years, were as follows:
Sales per Month | Average Age (Years) | Number of Stores | Percentage of Stores | Pre-Tax Earnings Percentage | ||||||||
Three months ended December 31, 2014 | Average monthly store sales = $101,608 | |||||||||||
$0 to $30,000 | 5.3 | 135 | 5.1 | % | -8.7 | % | ||||||
$30,001 to $60,000 | 8.9 | 646 | 24.5 | % | 11.6 | % | ||||||
$60,001 to $100,000 | 11.0 | 790 | 30.0 | % | 19.3 | % | ||||||
$100,001 to $150,000 | 13.0 | 501 | 19.0 | % | 23.2 | % | ||||||
Over $150,000 | 16.2 | 421 | 16.0 | % | 25.9 | % | ||||||
Strategic Account/Overseas Stores | 144 | 5.5 | % | |||||||||
Company Total | 2,637 | 100.0 | % | 20.4 | % | |||||||
Three months ended December 31, 2013 | Average monthly store sales = $87,798 | |||||||||||
$0 to $30,000 | 5.6 | 258 | 9.6 | % | -14.2 | % | ||||||
$30,001 to $60,000 | 8.0 | 776 | 28.9 | % | 9.9 | % | ||||||
$60,001 to $100,000 | 10.9 | 789 | 29.4 | % | 18.8 | % | ||||||
$100,001 to $150,000 | 12.8 | 414 | 15.4 | % | 23.4 | % | ||||||
Over $150,000 | 15.6 | 317 | 11.8 | % | 26.1 | % | ||||||
Strategic Account/Overseas Stores | 133 | 4.9 | % | |||||||||
Company Total | 2,687 | 100.0 | % | 19.3 | % | |||||||
Three months ended December 31, 2012 | Average monthly store sales = $83,098 | |||||||||||
$0 to $30,000 | 4.7 | 304 | 11.5 | % | -14.4 | % | ||||||
$30,001 to $60,000 | 7.6 | 830 | 31.3 | % | 12.2 | % | ||||||
$60,001 to $100,000 | 10.0 | 759 | 28.6 | % | 21.3 | % | ||||||
$100,001 to $150,000 | 12.9 | 375 | 14.1 | % | 26.0 | % | ||||||
Over $150,000 | 14.9 | 272 | 10.3 | % | 28.8 | % | ||||||
Strategic Account/Overseas Stores | 112 | 4.2 | % | |||||||||
Company Total | 2,652 | 100.0 | % | 20.9 | % | |||||||
Note – Amounts may not foot due to rounding difference, and dollar amounts in this section are presented in whole dollars, not thousands.
We originally announced the 'pathway to profit' in 2007, and discussed the profit improvement we envisioned as the average store size grows. Today, the five groups of stores listed above represent about 80% of our sales, with the remaining 20% coming from our Strategic Account/Overseas stores, our dedicated 'in-plant' business (where we set up a business at a customer's site), our direct import business, and our direct manufacturing business.
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Store Count and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Headcount – The table that follows highlights certain impacts on our business of the 'pathway to profit' since its introduction in 2007. Under the 'pathway to profit' we increased both our store count and our store FTE headcount during 2007 and 2008. However, the rate of increase in store locations slowed and our FTE headcount for all types of personnel was reduced when the economy weakened late in 2008. In the table that follows, we refer to our 'store' net sales, locations, and personnel. When we discuss 'store' net sales, locations, and personnel, we are referring to (1) 'Fastenal' stores and (2) strategic account stores. 'Fastenal' stores are either a 'traditional' store, the typical format in the United States or Canada, or an 'overseas' store, which is the typical format outside the United States and Canada. This is discussed in greater detail earlier in this document. Strategic account stores are stores that are focused on selling to a group of large customers in a limited geographic market. The sales outside of our 'store' group, relate to either (1) our in-plant locations, (2) the portion of our internally manufactured product that is sold directly to a customer and not through a store (including our Holo-Krome® business acquired in December 2009), or (3) our direct import business.
The breakdown of our net sales, the average monthly sales per store, the number of stores at quarter end, the average headcount at our stores during a quarter, the average FTE headcount during a quarter, and the percentage change for each were as follows for the first quarter of 2007 (the last completed quarter before we began the 'pathway to profit') and for each of the last five quarters:
Q1 2007 | Q4 2013 | Q1 2014 | Q2 2014 | Q3 2014 | Q4 2014 | ||||||||||||
Total net sales reported | $489,157 | $813,760 | $876,501 | $949,938 | $980,814 | $926,254 | |||||||||||
Less: non-store sales (approximate) | 40,891 | 105,499 | 113,945 | 125,509 | 129,841 | 122,006 | |||||||||||
Store net sales (approximate) | $448,266 | $708,261 | $762,556 | $824,429 | $850,973 | $804,248 | |||||||||||
% change since Q1 2007 | 58.0 | % | 70.1 | % | 83.9 | % | 89.8 | % | 79.4 | % | |||||||
% change (twelve months) | 7.1 | % | 8.2 | % | 11.7 | % | 13.5 | % | 13.6 | % | |||||||
Percentage of sales through a store | 92 | % | 87 | % | 87 | % | 87 | % | 87 | % | 87 | % | |||||
Average monthly sales per store | $72 | $88 | $95 | $102 | $107 | $102 | |||||||||||
(using ending store count) | |||||||||||||||||
% change since Q1 2007 | 22.2 | % | 31.9 | % | 41.7 | % | 48.6 | % | 41.7 | % | |||||||
% change (twelve months) | 6.0 | % | 8.0 | % | 10.9 | % | 15.1 | % | 15.9 | % | |||||||
Company pre-tax earnings percentage | 18.1 | % | 19.3 | % | 20.4 | % | 21.8 | % | 21.7 | % | 20.4 | % | |||||
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Q1 2007 | Q4 2013 | Q1 2014 | Q2 2014 | Q3 2014 | Q4 2014 | ||||||||||||
Store locations - quarter end count | 2,073 | 2,687 | 2,683 | 2,684 | 2,647 | 2,637 | |||||||||||
% change since Q1 2007 | 29.6 | % | 29.4 | % | 29.5 | % | 27.7 | % | 27.2 | % | |||||||
% change (twelve months) | 1.3 | % | 0.9 | % | 0.3 | % | -1.5 | % | -1.9 | % | |||||||
Store personnel - absolute headcount | 6,849 | 11,261 | 11,775 | 11,958 | 12,123 | 12,274 | |||||||||||
% change since Q1 2007 | 64.4 | % | 71.9 | % | 74.6 | % | 77.0 | % | 79.2 | % | |||||||
% change (twelve months) | |||||||||||||||||