Back to GetFilings.com

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, or

For the transition period from              to             

Commission file number 0-16125

FASTENAL COMPANY

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(507) 454-5374

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: Common Stock, $.01 par value

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2).    Yes  x    No  ¨

The aggregate market value of the Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2004, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $3,483,233,566, based on the closing sale price of the Common Stock on that date. For purposes of determining this number, all executive officers and directors of the registrant as of June 30, 2004 are considered to be affiliates of the registrant. This number is provided only for the purposes of this report on Form 10-K and does not represent an admission by either the registrant or any such person as to the status of such person.

As of February 1, 2005, the registrant had 75,877,376 shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 are incorporated by reference in Parts I and II. Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement for the annual meeting of shareholders to be held April 19, 2005 are incorporated by reference in Part III.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Form 10-K, including the sections in Part I hereof captioned “Item 1. Business – Development of the Business”, “Item 1. Business – Products”, “Item 1. Business – Manufacturing and Support Services Operations”, and “Item 2. Properties”, and the sections in Part II hereof captioned “Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities” and “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, contains or incorporates by reference statements that are not historical in nature and that are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding new store and distribution center openings, markets for new stores, expansion of foreign operations, the typical time period for new stores to achieve their first profitable month, technology conversions, introduction of new product lines, growth in manufacturing and support services, protection from economic downturns provided by the number and type of the Company’s customers, expected leasing of new stores, retention of gross profit margin improvements, the implementation of the Company’s Customer Service Project (CSP) and its anticipated impact on the Company’s inventory stocking model, inventory turns, and cash flows, the leveling off of sales growth and the variability of sales at older stores, growth in inventory, capital expenditures, expected purchases of additional store locations, funding of expansion plans, and dividends. A discussion of certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in such forward-looking statements is included in the registrant’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 in the section thereof captioned “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”, which section has been incorporated in this Form 10-K by reference. The registrant assumes no obligation to update either such forward-looking statements or the discussion of such risks and uncertainties.

PRESENTATION OF DOLLAR AMOUNTS

All dollar amounts in this Form 10-K are presented in thousands unless otherwise noted.

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Fastenal Company (“Fastenal Company” and, together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, Fastenal Company Services, Fastenal Company Purchasing, Fastenal Company Leasing, Fastenal Canada Company, Fastenal Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fastenal Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Fastenal Singapore P.T.E. Ltd., Fastenal Asia Pacific, Limited., FASTCO (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd., and Fastenal Europe, B.V., collectively, “the Company”) began as a partnership in 1967, and was incorporated under the laws of Minnesota in 1968. As of December 31, 2004, the Company had 1,533 store sites located in 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, and the Netherlands, and 5,502 people employed at these sites.

The Company sells industrial and construction supplies in a wholesale and retail fashion. As of December 31, 2004 these industrial and construction supplies were grouped into ten product lines described further below.

2

The Company operated twelve distribution centers as of December 31, 2004 from which the Company distributes products to its store sites.

Development of the Business

Fastenal Company began in 1967 with a marketing strategy of supplying threaded fasteners to customers in small, medium-sized, and, in subsequent years, large cities. The Company believes its success can be attributed to its ability to offer its customers a full line of products at convenient locations and to the high quality of the Company’s employees.

The Company opened its first store site in Winona, Minnesota, a city with a population of approximately 25,000. The following table shows the number of Company store sites at the end of each of the last ten years and the related consolidated net sales for each year during the last ten years:

As of December 31, 2004, the Company operated store sites in:

The Company has closed only ten stores in its history; three of these locations were subsequently reopened when the expansion of the Company’s product line or the expansion of the Company’s distribution network improved the profitability of the locations.

The Company selects new locations for its stores based on their proximity to the Company’s distribution network, population statistics, and employment data for manufacturing and construction. The Company intends to continue opening new store sites and currently expects the rate of new store openings to be approximately 13 to 18% per year.

The Company stocks all new stores with an inventory drawn from all of its product lines. Subsequent to opening, the store personnel may supplement the inventory offering to customize the selection to the needs of its customer base.

The Company believes, based on the demographics of the marketplace in the United States and Canada, that there is sufficient potential in those two countries to support at least 2,500 total stores. Many of the new store sites would be in cities in which the Company currently operates. The Company has not operated outside of the United States and Canada long enough to assess the market potential of those markets.

3

In addition to the stores discussed above, the Company also operates “in-plant” sites. An “in-plant” site is a selling unit located in or near a customer’s facility that sells product solely to that customer. These sites are not included in the store count numbers as they represent a customer subset of a store.

The Company opened the following store sites, outside the United States, in the last five years:

During 2002, the Company began operating an “in-plant” site in the Dominican Republic. The Company plans to open additional store sites in Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, and the Netherlands in the future. The store sites located outside the United States contributed approximately 6% of the Company’s consolidated net sales in 2004.

No assurance can be given that any of the expansion plans described above will be achieved, or that new stores, once opened, will be profitable.

It has been the Company’s experience that near-term profitability has been adversely affected by the opening of new store sites, due to the related start-up costs and the time necessary to generate a customer base. A new store generates its sales from direct sales calls, a slow process involving repeated contacts. As a result of this process, sales volume builds slowly and it typically requires nine to 12 months for a new store to achieve its first profitable month. Of the 49 stores opened in the first quarter of 2004, 21 were profitable in the fourth quarter of 2004.

For 2004, annual sales volumes of stores operating at least five years ranged between approximately $137 and $7,290, with 75% of these stores having annual sales volumes within the range of approximately $449 to $1,760. The data in the following table shows the growth in the average sales of the Company’s stores from 2003 to 2004 based on the age of each store. The stores opened in 2004 contributed approximately $31,500 (or approximately 2.5%) of the Company’s consolidated net sales in 2004, with the remainder coming from store sites opened prior to 2004.

4

As of December 31, 2004, the Company operated distribution centers in or near Winona, Minnesota; Indianapolis, Indiana; Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Fresno, California; Seattle, Washington; Akron, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Kansas City, Kansas; and Toronto, Ontario. Distribution centers are located so as to permit twice-a-week to five times-a-week deliveries to Company stores using Company trucks and overnight delivery by surface common carrier. As the number of stores increases, the Company intends to add new distribution centers.

On August 31, 2001, the Company acquired certain assets of two subsidiaries of Textron, Inc. These assets were used in their business of selling packaged fasteners to the retail market (Do-It-Yourself or DIY Business). The DIY Business was purchased after a prolonged period of contraction; therefore, the historical sales and earnings were not reflective of the DIY Business’s operations at the time it was acquired by the Company. The DIY Business was subsequently sold to The Hillman Group, Inc. on October 3, 2002. The DIY Business produced net sales of $16,974 and $8,526 during the approximately nine months and four months, respectively, that it was operated by the Company in 2002 and 2001 (or approximately 1.9% and 1.0% of total net sales in each year, respectively).

The Company operates a central UNIX/terminal-based computer system allowing automatic data exchange between the stores and the distribution centers. The use of client/server technology allows the Company’s network of UNIX-based machines to serve networked personal computers and workstations. During the last six years, the Company has been converting a portion of this central processing system to a new computer software and operating system and plans to convert additional modules during 2005. At the store level, the Company operates a proprietary point-of-sale system. This system operates on a Microsoft Windows operating system.

Trademarks

The Company conducts its business in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Singapore, and the Netherlands under various trademarks and service marks, including Fastenal®, EquipRite®, CleanChoice®, PowerPhase^™, and FastArc^™. During 2002 and 2001, the Company also operated the DIY Business under the trademarks FAS-N-IT^™ and Anchor Wire^™. The Anchor Wire^™ trademark was sold with the sale of the DIY Business in October 2002. Although the Company does not believe its operations are substantially dependent upon any of its trademarks or service marks, the Company considers its “Fastenal” name and other trademarks and service marks to be valuable to its business.

5

Products

The Company’s original product offering in 1967 was fasteners and other industrial and construction supplies, many of which are sold under the Fastenal® product name. Today, the fastener product line consists of approximately 251,000 different stock items. This product line consists of two broad categories: threaded fasteners, such as bolts, nuts, screws, studs, and related washers; and miscellaneous supplies, such as paints, various pins and machinery keys, concrete anchors, batteries, sealants, metal framing systems, wire rope, strut, private-label stud anchors, rivets, and related accessories.

Threaded fasteners are used in most manufactured products and building projects, and in the maintenance and repair of machines and structures. Many aspects of the threaded fastener market are common to all cities; variations from city to city that do exist typically relate to the types of businesses operating in a market or to the environmental conditions in a market. Therefore, the Company opens each store with a broad selection of base stocks of inventory and then allows the local store and district leaders to tailor the additional inventory to the local market demand as it develops. Threaded fasteners accounted for approximately 46%, 45%, and 46% of the Company’s consolidated net sales in 2004, 2003, and 2002, respectively.

Concrete anchors make up the largest portion of the miscellaneous supply items included in the Fastenal® product line. Most concrete anchors use threaded fasteners as part of the completed anchor assembly.

Since 1993, the Company added additional product lines. These product lines are sold through the same distribution channel as the original Fastenal® product line. The additional product lines include the following:

The Company plans to add other product lines in the future.

6

Inventory Control

The Company determines its inventory stocking levels through its computer systems, its sales personnel at the store, district, and region levels, and its product managers. The data used for this determination is derived from sales activity from all of Company’s stores, from individual stores, and from geographic areas; it is also derived from vendor information and from customer demographic information. The computer system monitors the inventory level for all stock items and triggers replenishment, or prompts a buyer to purchase, as necessary based on an established minimum-maximum level. All stores stock a base inventory and may expand beyond preset inventory levels as deemed appropriate by their district managers. Inventories in distribution centers are established from computerized data for the stores served by the respective centers.

Manufacturing and Support Services Operations

In 2004 approximately 94.8% of the Company’s consolidated net sales were attributable to products manufactured by other companies to industry standards. The remaining 5.2% of the Company’s consolidated net sales for 2004 related to products manufactured, modified or repaired by either the Company’s Manufacturing Division or its Support Services. The manufactured products consist primarily of non-standard sizes of threaded fasteners made to customers’ specifications. The services provided by the Support Services group include, but are not limited to, items such as tool repair, band saw blade welding, third-party logistics, and light manufacturing. The Company engages in these activities primarily as a service to its customers and expects these activities in the future to continue to contribute in the range of 4% to 10% of the Company’s consolidated net sales.

Sources of Supply

The Company uses a large number of suppliers for the approximately 515,000 standard stock items it distributes. Most items distributed by the Company can be purchased from several sources, although preferred sourcing is used for some stock items to facilitate quality control. No single supplier accounted for more than 5% of the Company’s purchases in 2004.

Geographic Information

Information regarding the Company’s revenues and certain of the Company’s assets by geographic location is set forth in note 11 to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in Fastenal Company’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference. Foreign currency fluctuations, changes in trade relations, or fluctuations in the relative strength of foreign economies could impact the Company’s ability to procure products overseas at competitive prices and the Company’s foreign sales.

7

Customers and Marketing

The Company believes its success can be attributed to its ability to offer customers in small, medium, and large-sized cities a full line of products at convenient locations, and to the high quality of the Company’s employees. Most of the Company’s customers are in the construction and manufacturing markets. The construction market includes general, electrical, plumbing, sheet metal, and road contractors. The manufacturing market includes both original equipment manufacturers and maintenance and repair operations. Other users of the Company’s products include farmers, truckers, railroads, mining companies, federal, state and local governmental entities, schools, and certain retail trades. As of December 31, 2004, the Company’s total number of active customer accounts (defined as accounts having purchase activity within the last 90 days) was approximately 204,000.

During each of the past three years ended December 31, 2004, no one customer accounted for a significant portion of the Company’s sales. The Company believes that the large number of its customers together with the varied markets that they represent provide some protection to the Company from economic downturns in a particular market.

Store personnel generate a significant portion of the Company’s sales through direct calls on customers. Because of the nature of the Company’s business, the Company makes limited use of the more expensive forms of mass media advertising such as television, radio, and newspapers. Forms of advertising used by the Company include signs, catalogs, and direct mailings.

Competition

The Company’s business is highly competitive. Competitors include both large distributors located primarily in large cities and smaller distributors located in many of the same cities in which the Company has stores. The Company believes that the principal competitive factors affecting the markets for the Company’s products are customer service and convenience.

Some competitors use vans to sell their products in markets away from their main warehouses, while others rely on mail order or telemarketing sales. The Company, however, believes that the convenience provided to customers by operating stores in small, medium, and large markets, each offering a wide variety of products, is a competitive selling advantage and that the large number of stores in a given area, taken together with the Company’s ability to provide frequent deliveries to such stores from centrally located distribution centers, makes possible the prompt and efficient distribution of products. Having trained personnel at each store also enhances the Company’s ability to compete (see “Employees” below).

Employees

As of December 31, 2004, the Company employed a total of 7,946 full and part-time employees, 5,502 being store managers and store employees, and the balance being employed in the Company’s distribution centers, manufacturing operations, service operations, and home office.

The Company believes that the quality of its employees is critical to its ability to compete successfully in the markets it currently serves and to its ability to open new stores in new markets. The Company fosters the growth and education of skilled employees throughout the organization by operating training programs and by decentralizing decision-making. Wherever possible, promotions are from within the Company. For example, most new store managers are promoted from an assistant manager’s position at another store and district managers (who supervise a number of stores) are usually former store managers.

8

The Company’s sales personnel participate in incentive bonus arrangements that place emphasis on achieving increased sales on a store and regional basis, while still attaining targeted levels of gross profit and collections. As a result, a significant portion of the Company’s total employment cost varies with sales volume. The Company also pays incentive bonuses to its leadership personnel based on one or more of the following factors: sales growth, profit growth, profitability, and return on assets, and to its other personnel for achieving pre-determined cost containment goals.

None of the Company’s employees is subject to a collective bargaining agreement and the Company has experienced no work stoppages. The Company believes its employee relations are excellent.

Posting of Periodic and Current Reports

Fastenal Company’s annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are available free of charge on or through the Company’s website at www.fastenal.com as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports have been filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

The Company owns six facilities in Winona, Minnesota. These facilities are as follows:

The Company also owns the following facilities, excluding store locations, outside of Winona, Minnesota:

9

In addition, the Company owns 169 buildings that house the Company’s store locations in various cities throughout North America and is currently in the process of building or renovating another 27 owned store locations for future use.

All other buildings occupied by the Company are leased. Leased stores range from approximately 1,200 to 8,000 square feet, with lease terms of up to 48 months. The Company also leases the following distribution centers:

If economic conditions are suitable, the Company will, in the future, consider purchasing store sites to house its older stores. It is anticipated that all sites for new stores will continue to be leased. It is the Company’s policy to negotiate relatively short lease terms to facilitate relocation of particular store operations if deemed desirable by management. It has been the Company’s experience that space suitable for its needs and available for leasing is more than sufficient.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

None.

ITEM 4. SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS

Not Applicable.

10

ITEM X. EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT

The executive officers of Fastenal Company are:

Mr. Oberton has been Chief Executive Officer and President of Fastenal Company since December 2002. From July 2001 through December 2002, Mr. Oberton was President and Chief Operating Officer of Fastenal Company. From June 2000 through July 2001, Mr. Oberton was Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of Fastenal Company. From March 1997 through June 2000, Mr. Oberton held the position of Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of Fastenal Company. Mr. Oberton has also served as a director of Fastenal Company since June 1999.

Mr. Lundquist has been Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of Fastenal Company since December 2002. From June 2000 through December 2002, Mr. Lundquist was Vice-President of Sales of Fastenal Company. From April 1997 through June 2000, Mr. Lundquist held the position of National Sales Manager of Fastenal Company.

Mr. Florness has been Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Fastenal Company since December 2002. From June 1996 to November 2002, Mr. Florness was the Chief Financial Officer of Fastenal Company.

Mr. Appelwick has been Vice-President – Product Procurement, Marketing, and Logistics of Fastenal Company since December 2002. From August 2001 through December 2002, Mr. Appelwick was Operations Manager of Fastenal Company. From August 1999 through July 2001, Mr. Appelwick held the position of Business Development/Logistics Manager of Fastenal Company.

The executive officers are elected by the Board of Directors, generally for a term of one year, and serve until their successors are elected and qualified. None of the above executive officers is related to any other such executive officer or to any other director of Fastenal Company.

11

PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS, AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Incorporated herein by reference is Fastenal Company’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, Common Stock Data on page 6.

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

Incorporated herein by reference is Fastenal Company’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, Six-Year Selected Financial Data on page 5.

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Incorporated herein by reference is Fastenal Company’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, Management’s Discussion & Analysis of Financial Condition & Results of Operations on pages 8 to 16.

ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISKS

Incorporated herein by reference is Fastenal Company’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, Market Risk Management on page 14.

ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Incorporated herein by reference is Fastenal Company’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, Selected Quarterly Financial Data (Unaudited) on page 6, Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements on pages 17 to 31, and Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm on Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplemental Schedule on page 33.

ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

None.

12

Incorporated herein by reference is Fastenal Company’s Annual Report to Shareholders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004, Management Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting on page 32 and Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm on Internal Control over Financial Reporting on page 34.

As of the end of the period covered by this report, the Company conducted an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of the principal executive officer and principal financial officer of Fastenal Company, of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act). Based on this evaluation, the principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures are effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the Company in reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in Securities and Exchange Commission rules and forms.

PART III

ITEM 10. DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT

Incorporated herein by reference is the information appearing under the headings “Election of Directors—Nominees and Required Vote”, pages 6 to 7, “Election of Directors—Committee Matters”, page 8, and “Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance”, page 18, in Fastenal Company’s Proxy Statement dated February 28, 2005. See also Part I hereof under the heading “Item X. Executive Officers of the Registrant”.

On January 19, 2004, the Board of Directors of Fastenal Company adopted a supplement to the Company’s existing Standards of Conduct designed to qualify the Standards of Conduct as a code of ethics within the meaning of Item 406(b) of Regulation S-K promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Code of Ethics”). The Standards of Conduct, as supplemented, apply to all directors, officers, and employees of the Company, including without limitation the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, principal accounting officer, and controller (if any) of Fastenal Company, and persons performing similar functions (“Senior Financial Officers”). Those portions of the Standards of Conduct, as supplemented, that constitute a required element of a Code of Ethics are available without charge by submitting a request to the Company pursuant to the directions detailed on the Company’s website at www.fastenal.com. In the event the Company amends or waives any portion of the Standards of Conduct, as supplemented, that constitutes a required element of a Code of Ethics and such amendment or waiver applies to any of the Senior Financial Officers, the Company intends to post on its website, within four business days after the date of such amendment or waiver, a brief description of such amendment or waiver, the name of each Senior Financial Officer to whom the amendment or waiver applies, and the date of the amendment or waiver.

ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

Incorporated herein by reference is the information appearing under the headings “Election of Directors—Compensation of Directors and Committee Members”, page 10, “Executive Compensation—Summary of Compensation”, pages 13 to 14, “Executive Compensation—Option/SAR Grants”, page 14, and “Executive Compensation—Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation”, page 14, in Fastenal Company’s Proxy Statement dated February 28, 2005.

13

ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS

Incorporated herein by reference is the information appearing under the heading “Security Ownership of Principal Shareholders and Management”, pages 3 to 5, in Fastenal Company’s Proxy Statement dated February 28, 2005.

Executive Compensation Plan Information

ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS

None.

14

ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES

Incorporated herein by reference is the information appearing under the heading “Independent Auditors’ Fees and Services”, pages 11 to 12, in Fastenal Company’s Proxy Statement dated February 28, 2005.

ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES

15

16

FASTENAL COMPANY

Schedule II—Valuation and Qualifying Accounts

Years ended December 31, 2004, 2003, and 2002

(Amounts in thousands)

17

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Date: February 28, 2005

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the date indicated.

Date: February 28, 2005

18

INDEX TO EXHIBITS