Fastenal History [VIDEO]

The Fastenal story began in 1967 when Bob Kierlin pooled together $30,000 with four friends and opened the first Fastenal store, a 1,000 sq. ft. shop in his hometown of Winona, MN. (The original business plan was to dispense nuts and bolts via custom vending machines, but the technology proved impracticable at the time. Several decades would pass before Fastenal finally popularized industrial vending.)
After surviving the typical struggles of a startup business, Fastenal gradually found its niche – by going the extra mile for customers and providing the kind of service that kept them coming back. Kierlin later drilled this approach down to four simple words: Growth Through Customer Service.
This motto has guided us forward as we’ve grown from a small regional supplier into one of the world’s most dynamic growth companies – from one store to more than 2,600 and counting