March 2010 Archives

Avnet Memec could achieve sales this year of €35m.

The interesting thing is this will represent a three-fold increase on the sales figure just three years ago.

Avnet's $390m move for Bell Microproducts is either a positive signal that the enterprise computer market is returning to growth.

Or it is a huge gamble by the US distributor.

I do not think that Avnet's CEO Roy Vallee is the sort of person to take big risks.

It would not surprise me to read that the manufacturing sector was not really that impressed by the measures announced in yesterday's Budget.

Avnet Abacus has signed the Power Integrations line of power conversion chips across Europe.

Panasonic Industrial Europe has extended its distribution agreement with MSC to establish a pan-European deal to focus on smart metering technologies.

RS Components has added FCI's automotive connectors to its catalogue in what is a new departure for the distributor.

The general election is two months away and the UK gets a new manifesto for manufacturing.

Call me a cynic, but the timing of the publication of the first National Strategic Skills Audit seems like pure opportunism.

The general election is two months away and the UK gets a new manifesto for manufacturing. 

I believe something similar happened before the last three elections.

Sadly, neither Labour nor Conservative has given the engineering and manufacturing sector much of their attention.

NTK Technical Ceramics has received a supplier of the year award from the C-MAC MicroTechnology.

It is the first company to receive this award which covers the business year to September 2009.

Is the UK car industry on the mend?

The signs may be encouraging with car sales up by 26.4% in February compared with the same month last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Nu Horizons has said it is to lose the Xilinx franchise in June.

It is probably no surprise that Xilinx is reviewing its distribution strategy. The programmable logic business is changing.

Tektronix is the latest company to set-up an online community where users of its test systems will share information and take part in discussion forums.

TTI's proposed acquisition of Flightspares tells us that the period of rationalisation in the electronics distribution market has not yet finished.