Fastenal’s story began in November 28th, 1967 when Bob Kierlin, with the support of four friends and a modest $30,000 investment, opened a small 1,000 sq ft store at 69 Lafayette Street in Winona, Minnesota. Originally focused on selling nuts and bolts through custom vending machines, this humble beginning laid the foundation for what would become a global leader in industrial vending. Bob's original idea was to create self-service stores lined with fastener vending machines, but they quickly pivot to a more traditional outside sales-based service model.
Fastenal is a company grounded in people and community. When it went public in 1987, the founders set aside 100,000 of the one million IPO shares for purchase by the company's 252 employees at the time. Another 285,715 shares were set aside to create an educational endowment for area schools.
As of mid 2001, Fastenal began accepting orders via the company web site. However, only 1 percent of overall sales came in over the internet. It offered as many as 195,000 different parts at its 897 company-operated stores throughout the continental United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. The stores are stocked via 11 distribution centers.
Fastenal India IT, Sourcing, and Procurement Pvt. Ltd. was setup in September 2013 in Bengaluru, Karnataka to establish a world-class technology and innovation center of excellence. With more than 20 different teams working on a plethora of globally accredited technologies, including e-commerce, store solutions, Crib Management, and other areas of supply chain enhancement, we participate in all-round software development methodologies, including design, development, infrastructure support, manual and automated Testing, application support, and maintenance.
