Industry Activities
Fastenal & FASTCO Taiwan 2014 Supplier Awards Banquet
Celebrating 23 years of Partnership
Fastenal Company is the largest distributor of fasteners in North America. Global sales in 2013 were USD$3.326 billion. Fastenal was established in 1967 in Minnesota, USA and went public in 1987. As of February 2014 Fastenal owned and operated 2,690 stores worldwide as well as 14 distribution centers, 300+ big trucks and 5,000+ local delivery vehicles. Fastenal is a one-stop source for OEM, MRO, and Industrial & Construction supplies where fasteners make up 42% of total sales.
From 1991 to 2013 Fastenal purchased USD$1.17 billion worth of products from Taiwanese manufacturers: USD$882 million directly from 222 local Taiwanese suppliers and USD$289 million from Taiwanese suppliers in China, Thailand, Malaysia, etc. It goes without saying that Taiwan is and has been a very close partner for Fastenal!
Every year the Fastenal office in Taiwan holds a supplier awards banquet in order to show its appreciation for its Taiwanese partners, for without them, Fastenal would have nothing to sell. This year’s banquet was held on March 14, 2014 at the Hai Zhong Xian restaurant in Gangshan and 140 guests attended. 10 awards were presented and the suppliers were scored on: quality, lead times, price competitiveness, order fulfillment and overall service. The ‘Supplier of the Year’ for 2013 was Super Cheng Industrial Co., Ltd.
Scott Camp (Fastenal V.P. of Procurement & Supply Chain), Steve Appelwick (FASTCO Shanghai President), and Glenn Huang (FASTCO Shanghai V.P.) were in attendance and all gave a short speech. John Wu (former TIFI Chairman & former President of Sanshing) flew in especially from New Zealand to attend the banquet and Joe Chen (current TIFI Chairman) was also in attendance.
The most memorable part of the evening was when Fastenal was presented with an ‘award of recognition’ by Mr. Vincent Tseng (Kaohsiung city government, economic development bureau, director general) for Fastenal’s contribution to the Taiwan economy, the fastener industry and the community over the past 23 years. Scott Camp had the honor of receiving the award on behalf of Fastenal. Back in the Fastenal headquarters in Winona, Minnesota, Scott presented the award to Mr. Bob Kierlin, Fastenal’s founder and he said, “Thank you Taiwan!”
Finally, the guests were treated to a traditional Sichuan face-changing (bian lian) performance where vividly colored masks typically depicting well known characters from the opera are changed from one to another almost instantaneously.
This year’s supplier awards banquet was a great success and Fastenal / FASTCO sincerely thank all of its friends and partners in Taiwan.
Godspeed!
