Fastenal is an industrial distributor that sells fasteners (bolts, nuts, screws, and related hardware) and a broad range of other industrial supplies — primarily safety products, cutting tools, chemicals, and MRO items — to manufacturing and construction customers. Fasteners represent roughly 30% of sales and safety products roughly 22%. Customers use these products either as direct materials incorporated into manufactured goods (roughly 40% of sales) or as indirect MRO spend (roughly 60%). Fastenal sells almost entirely B2B, with roughly 74% of sales under contract, primarily with large national multi-site manufacturers. Fastenal reaches customers through roughly 1,595 branch locations, dedicated onsite personnel embedded inside large customer facilities, and FMI devices — vending machines and electronic bin sensors placed inside customer facilities to automate replenishment. FMI and eBusiness together accounted for roughly 61% of FY25 sales. Fastenal makes money by selling products at a markup, with gross margins in the mid-40% range. Roughly 70% of costs are labor, mostly variable and tied to incentive compensation, which compresses in weak years to protect margins. Fastenal's growth strategy centers on winning new national accounts, deepening wallet share with large customers, expanding its FMI device installed base, and entering less-cyclical verticals like healthcare, government, and data centers. Fastenal is predominantly a North American business, with the U.S. as its core market and Canada and Mexico representing roughly 15% of revenue.