How they rank

Electronic News, Dec 2, 1996

(EN 1996 Sales Estimates)

The industry's top pair, Arrow and Avnet, will remain in a world of their own among franchised industrial distributors when 1996 ends in a few weeks, with estimated worldwide calendar-1996 sales totaling $6.5 billion for Arrow, and $5.1 billion for Avnet, according to EN market data. A rapidly expanding portion of their sales is generated in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and elsewhere outside North America. The combined $11.6 billion tallied by first place Arrow and second ranked Avnet is approaching half the total dollar figure for the entire top 25, which just crosses over $25 billion. The next 23 companies battle for the remaining $13.5 billion or so.

After Arrow and Avnet, distribution's next tier will be led by a pair of newcomers to the top 25 list: Premier Farnell, third a $1.7 billion, representing the merger of Premier and Farnell, which as individual companies tied for seventh place last year; and Germany's Raab Karcher, making its intial appearance on the list in fourth place at $1.69 billion. Raab Karcher and affiliated companies have been on a worldwide expansion spree in recent years which has included ties to the U.S.'s Insight, Axis and Seymour Electronics. The global nature of the top 25 continues with Montreal-headquartered and internationally active Future Electronics in fifth place at $1.62 billion. In sixth place is Pioneer-Standard at $1.5 billion, with Wyle seventh at $1.3 billion; and Marshall eighth at $1.18 billion.

The ranking list then leaves the billion-dollar range and drops down a tier, with the remaining distributors all under a half-billion dollars in sales. In ninth place is Bell Microproducts at $482 million, followed by Bell Industries, tenth, at $470 million. In recent weeks, there have been widespread unconfirmed rumors that Bell Industries was planning a major acquisition, with Migray often mentioned in the gossip mill, but nothing had materialized by the Distribution Trends 1997 press time early last week. If Bell Industries were to buy Milgray, it would vault over Bell Micro, but still remain well under the billion-dollar club. The Texas trio of Kent, TTI and Sterling take places 11, 12 and 13 respectively. Following our standard practice, Sterling's recently completed acquisition of Marsh Electronics is reflected in these figures as if it owned Marsh for the entire year; however Kent's pending but not yet completed buys of Futronix, Wire & Cable Specialties and EMC Distribution are not reflected here. Were those numbers, totaling around $120 million, folded in, Kent would climb over the current positions of the two Bells. In 14th place is Milgray at $305 milion, followed by Reptron, 15th at $270 million; All American, 16th at $260 million; Richardson, 17th at $240 million; Nu Horizons, 18th at $235 million; Richey 19th at $227 million; and Sager, 20th, at $200 million. The rest of the distinguished 25, all expected to come in under $200 million: Digi-Key, 21st; Jaco, 22nd; Interface, 23rd; DAC Group, 24th; and Powell, 25th.

All numbers in this chart and throughout Distribution Trends 1997 are based on Electronic News market research and estimates, and feature industrial distributors that are franchised by component manufacturers to sell their parts. The top 25 rank for each company is based on estimated total dollar sales worldwide for the entire '96 calendar year for each company, including the total sales of acquisitions made during the year, and includes EN's estimates for the still unconcluded '96 fourth quarter. The box shows 9-month sales for each firm in the top 25, mostly based on actual results reported by public copanies from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 1996. For private companies, or others where results for the first nine months of the year are unavailable, EN estimates are provided. While this chart and the Top 25 index and directory starting on Page 18 represent worldwide numbers, the industrial volume chart on Page 14 reflects business done in North America, and the Total Available Market map on Pages 36-37 shows the 31 major markets in the U.S.

9-Month Actual Sales

Arrow                 4.9B
Avnet                 4.0B
Premier Farnell       1.28B
Raab Karcher          1.25B
Future                1.2B
Pioneer-Standard      1.0B
Wyle                  929M
Marshall              878M
Bell Microproducts    347M
Bell Industries       351M
Kent                  312.6M
TTI                   304.4M
Sterling              251.4M
Milgray               207.3M
Reptron               198.7M
All American          186.8M
Richardson            181.1M
Nu Horizons           163.6M
Richey                170.3M
Sager                 130.5M
Digi-Key              132.5M
Jaco                  121.8M
Interface             79.2M
DAC Group             81.3M
Powell                60.0M