Fastenal announced its third CEO change in the last year on Tuesday, opting again for an internal hire, and released third-quarter numbers that showed a growing but slowing third quarter for 2015, adding employees and increasing vending machines but not seeing as much profit.

CEO Will Oberton announced at the morning’s investor conference call that Dan Florness, the company’s chief financial officer, would be replacing him in the position. Florness, 51, will mark 20 years with the company next year.

Oberton had been CEO from 2002 until last year, then returned this summer when Leland Hein, Oberton’s successor, stepped down to chief financial officer this summer.

In the conference call, Oberton said Florness has a great team to work with and they “really believe he’s going to do a great job.”

Fastenal reported increasing its sales by $10 million compared to last year’s numbers over the same period, an increase of 1.5 percent, but isn’t seeing the same double-digit growth as in 2014, according to Tuesday’s earnings report.

And it’s still less than the second quarter, with reported sales of $997,827 — the highpoint for the last three years.

Fastenal’s analysis points to several factors slowing its growth, which was in the double digits last year at this time, including slowdowns in business with customers connected to the oil and gas industry, a strong U.S. dollar relative to other currencies hurting the US customer base – approximately 89 percent of its business – and slowdown in the growth of Canadian business.

Fastenal’s statement on the earnings said that company is trying to invest in opportunities, which “typically center on people.”

“By adding more people we add to our ability to interact with and to serve our customers from our local store and to back them up in some type of support role,” the statement said.

Fastenal added 1,234 people in the first nine months of 2015, and have plans to expand the pace of its store openings with 60 or 70 new ones, about 2 or 3 percent, in 2016.

Currently the company has 2,609 store locations, down from 2,647 in the third quarter of 2014.

Industrial vending, one of the newest additions to their company, did continue to grow, up 17.4 percent from last year with 53,527 machines installed.

The statement said that the growth is directly related to the addition of new stores and local presence, which give them a “structural advantage.”

“Given these capabilities, the non-fastener business remains more resilient,” according to the report.

However, both the fastener side of the operation, which accounts for 40 percent of the business, and the non-fastener part have slowed, with the non-fastener going from 18 percent growth in the last six months of 2014 to about 6 percent in the third quarter of 2015.

Fastenal’s stock closed Tuesday at $37.95, down from $38.81 yesterday and $48.43 at the end of December.

Source: winonadailynews.com