CIE Components in Electronics
Traditionally, broadline distributors have reserved logistics services and sales support for manufacturers with materials requirements worth hundreds of thousands of pounds per year. The introduction in the UK and Eire of FAI now makes technical support and the company”s advanced logistics capabilities at its EMEA Distribution Centre in Leipzig, Germany, available to a much wider range of electronics manufacturers than before.
FAI customers will have access to Future Electronics’ inventory of components from franchised suppliers; the company is well known for holding a larger percentage of available-to-sell components than is common among broadline distributors.
According to Future by buying through FAI, medium size OEMs and CEMs will benefit from guaranteed availability of stock – FAI will match a forecast of materials requirements with ‘bonded inventory’ for qualifying customers.
In addition, all FAI customers will benefit from the inventory management practices of Future Electronics’ EMEA Distribution Centre, which aims to make the 100,000 most popular electronics components available for next-day delivery to any customer on any business day.
Chris McAneny, Business Development Director (EMEA) of Future Electronics, said: ‘There is a distinct gap in the market for FAI to fill. The acquisition strategy of publicly-owned distributors has not only consolidated the industry, thus reducing choice for customers, but also removed distributors which almost exclusively serviced mid-size and developing customers. Broadline distributors provide a very professional service, however their sales people has to be focused on the biggest customers.
‘FAI is going to offer big-company service but in tandem with the low order volumes required by medium-sized and emerging companies. And at the same time, with the power of Future Electronics behind us, we can offer competitive pricing to FAI customers along with access to inventory and easy to use product/applications information. All of these are key customer requirements either for design engineers working on new product introductions or manufacturers producing existing products, where forecasting volumes is difficult.’
