Records Fall In Arrow's Second Quarter

The record books are being rewritten as distributors report financials in a market still steaming ahead.

Arrow Electronics is the latest on the podium posting all-time high second quarter revenues of $4.61bn and a profit of $116.2m. This compares with revenues at $3.39bn and profits of $21.1m in the corresponding quarter last year.

Component sales boomed 44 per cent in this quarter to $3.26bn, with every geographic region contributing to the cause. "Exceptional sales growth in all of our components regions led to record-levels of sales and operating income. Return on working capital more than doubled year over year, setting a new record also," said Michael J Long, chairman and chief executive officer of Arrow.

Global enterprise computing solutions ("ECS") sales of $1.35 billion increased 21 percent year over year. "Storage, software, services, and industry-standard servers grew at very strong double-digits rates on a year-over-year basis," said Mr. Long. "Sequential sales exceeded our expectations as here too, our focus on sales excellence and our strategic investments in key solution segments is paying off," Mr. Long added.

For the first six months of its financial year Arrow reported sales of $8.85bn and profit of $203.2m against sales of $6.81bn and profits of 47.8m last year.

Looking ahead, Arrow believes that total third quarter sales will be between $4.39 and $4.79 billion, with global components sales between $3.32 and $3.52 billion and global enterprise computing solutions sales between $1.07 and $1.27 billion.