## 200 4 

The Board of Directors and Stockholders Fastenal Company: 

## Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm on Consolidated Financial Statements 

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Fastenal Company and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, and the related consolidated statements of earnings, stockholders’ equity and comprehensive income, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2004. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits. 

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. 

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Fastenal Company and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2004, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. 

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the effectiveness of Fastenal Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2004, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework  issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), and our report dated February 18, 2005 expressed an unqualified opinion on management’s assessment of, and the effective operation of, internal control over financial reporting. 

Minneapolis, Minnesota February 18, 2005 

