FAST vs AMP Comparison

Fastenal began as an industrial retailer, expanding its product portfolio from nuts and bolts to cutting tools, safety equipment, and janitorial supplies. It transitioned into a distributor by building out a dense network of branches close to its business customers. Once a customer becomes large enough, Fastenal installs vending machines and its own personnel on-site. Today, these on-site locations exceed Fastenal's branch count and remain the firm's main focus for expansion. Fastenal acts as a one-stop outsourcing partner for its industrial customers, offering value-added services along with a wide breadth of maintenance, repair, and operations supplies.

Ameriprise Financial has evolved into a diversified financial services provider that generates roughly 65% of its operating income from advice and wealth management. With more than $1 trillion in segment assets under management and advisory at year-end 2024, and with roughly 10,000 affiliated advisors, Ameriprise is one of the larger US-based wealth managers. The firm also boasts a reasonably large asset management franchise in Columbia Threadneedle, which boasted $645 billion in assets under management at year-end 2024. The firm's third key segment is its retirement and protection services business, which sells insurance products to the firm's advisory clients. After eliminations, Ameriprise had $1.5 trillion in assets under management and advisory across segments at year-end 2024.