OK, an occasional, nostalgic ferret back through the industry's history to recall a few companies which in their day were punching in the heavyweight division of distribution, and which all ended up in the same place;
1. Ducommon - a sizable US distributor in it's heyday. reached its zenith in the mid to late 80s before being acquired by Arrow Electronics.It was a $150 million acquisition, a distribution blockbuster at the time, and it took Arrow's revenues close to, wait for' it, the $1 billion revenues mark, and took much closer order to world number one Avnet.
2. Cramer Electronics- a US distributor headed by the exotically monikered Timothy X Cronin. When the company ran into trouble the US company was bought by, yup, Arrow. Cronin to his credit had realised Europe was a fruitful distribution market and funded three top UK executives, David Griffin, Geoff Taylor and John Lythal, to establish a Cramer Components UK business based in Sunbury on Thames, close to Heathrow Airport. When the US company was bought these three engineered a management buy-out and renamed the company Hawke Components after a British Naval Admiral of the 18th Century who had lived in the area.
3. Lex Electronics - a UK-based distribution group, owned by Lex Service, a car leasing outfit, which hankered after a global position, but never quite made it to the top. It was a big player in the UK owning Jermyn Distribution, another exalted name in UK distribution as well as Impulse Electronics, a Japanese only distributor and Mogul. It made a foray into the USthrough the acquisition of Schweber, a feisty US independent distributor. The boom bust cycles got to the parent company fin ally and the US business was sold to Arrow in 1991. The European arm soldiered on for another year before it too was sold to Arrow.
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