Avnet unleashes new force in European electronic components distribution

Poing, Germany -- Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet, Inc., (NYSE:AVT) a global technology distributor, today announced the formation of Avnet Abacus, a new force in European electronic component distribution. Focused on interconnect, passives, electromechanical, power supplies and batteries, Avnet Abacus has a clear vision of becoming number one in the market.

Avnet Abacus unifies the strengths of Avnet Time and the associated products represented by the Abacus Group, which was acquired by Avnet in January 2009. Graham McBeth, formerly Managing Director at Abacus Group, has been named as president of Avnet Abacus, reporting to Patrick Zammit, president of Avnet Electronics Marketing EMEA. McBeth leads a pan-European organisation with aggregate gross sales in 2008 of over €300 million through 45 offices in 19 countries.

Patrick Zammit comments: “Avnet Abacus unifies the strengths of Avnet Time and Abacus Group to open a new chapter in European distribution. The two businesses are a perfect fit strategically and culturally and have been very successful independently. Avnet Abacus is set to deliver a first-class product and service solution across Europe. I am convinced that in this case 1 and 1 equals more than 2, for customers, for suppliers and for Avnet.”

McBeth explains: “Our aim is to be the distributor of choice in these product categories, a clear number one across all customer segments, geographies, technologies and suppliers. Our key strength is our product to customer approach. We are a pan-European distributor with a strong local focus, providing all the financial, service and logistics benefits of a global distributor with the personal service, local presence and product choice of a local distributor”. The new business already enjoys a leading market position in the major European markets: Avnet Abacus is currently the number one distributor in the UK and France, number three in Nordic and Italy, number four in Germany and number two overall in Europe (Europartners 2008). The goal is, of course, to claim leadership in all major markets over time.

McBeth continued, “We believe that the combined business will bring enormous benefits to our customers. Our expanded linecard and extended technology focus is supported by an exceptional team of product specialists based across Europe. These product specialists work with the customer at the system level, integrating components, assemblies and cables to provide a solution that meets or exceeds the design brief. Further support is offered to engineers via online product selection tools, design references and sample requests”

Headquartered in Poing, Germany, Avnet Abacus has over 450 staff supporting in excess of 13,000 customers with products from 42 pan-European franchised suppliers and complimented by a further range of strong local suppliers. Avnet Abacus is part of Avnet Electronics Marketing, the number one distributor of electronic components to the industrial market in EMEA. Avnet Abacus is served internally by Avnet Logistics, the common integrated pan-European logistical backbone and enjoys Avnet’s industry leading supply-chain services & management capabilities as well as the global corporate power and financial strength of Avnet Electronics Marketing.