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Mark Larson |
The Digi-Key Corporation has announced that it has surpassed $1.5 billion in global sales for the first time in 2010, generating a half-billion dollars in the fourth quarter alone and that represents a 64 percent year-over-year sales increase for the US electronic components distributor.
Digi-Key offers more than 1.8 million products from more than 470 brand-name manufacturers worldwide, as well as providing engineering know-how it supplies technical expertise to customers such as design engineers, equipment manufacturers and hobbyists.
"Our sales continue to grow because of our presence online and immediate access to products and information,” said Mark Larson, Digi-Key president and COO. “We deliver around the world faster than anyone else.”
Key to the company’s performance is its strategy of maintaining high levels of in-stock components, which gives it the ability to ship orders immediately to markets around the world.
2010 Digi-Key sales increased at a rate almost double that of the industry. The company believes that it is the strength of its business model and the breadth of electronic components for off-the-shelf delivery that have been the significant factors behind its international sales growth. The largest annual 2010 sales gains were in Europe (120 percent), Africa (118 percent), Asia-Pacific (115 percent), and the Middle East (78 percent) over 2009 sales. The company is also projecting sales to reach nearly $1.8 billion in 2011.
Based in Thief River Falls, Minn., the company employs more than 2,400 people. Last year saw further recruitment as the company sought to support both its growth and its customer service focus. Digi-Key hired more than 670 new employees in 2010 and has said that it plans to add hundreds more this year.
