Fastenal has 2,611 branches and almost 10,000 vending machines at MROs??? You betcha!
Even more interesting to industry observers in the distribution market is fact that the company opened up 28 new branches in 1Q 2012, giving it a grand total of 2,611 locations. As a point of comparison, that's more than the five largest full-line electrical distributors had combined in 2011.
The company also announced huge growth in its FAST Solutions industrial vending machine initiative. Fastenal now has 9,798 vending machines installed in the facilities of its industrial customers. These machines don't dispense snacks -- they give customers easy access to MRO supplies like drill bits, WD40 oil, goggles, gloves and tools. Said the company in a press release announcing its 1Q 2012 financials, “We believe our FAST Solutions (industrial vending) have the potential to be transformative to industrial distribution. We also believe we have a 'first mover' advantage, and are investing to maximize the advantage...
"We are pleased with the increases in the number of vending machine contracts signed, and with our ability to install machines. We increased our installed machine base by 2,345 machines (9,798 versus 7,453) in the first quarter of 2012, by 734 machines (2,659 versus 1,925) in the first quarter of 2011, and by 325 machines (892 versus 567) in the first quarter of 2010.”
About the Author
Jim Lucy Blog
Chief Editor
Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.