Premier Farnell (branded as Farnell)
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryElectronics
Founded1939
FounderAlan Farnell
HeadquartersChicago, Illinois, USA
Key people
Chris Breslin, President
ParentAvnet
Websitewww.farnell.com

Premier Farnell Ltd is a distributor of products for electronic system design, maintenance and repair throughout Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, with operations in 36 countries and trading in over 100.[1] In October 2016, the firm was purchased by Avnet in a deal valued at approximately £691 million.[2]

History

The firm was founded by Alan Farnell and Arthur Woffenden in 1939 in Leeds, England as A.C. Farnell Limited.[3] It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1966.[3] The company was based next to Wetherby railway station, later moving into larger offices on the town's Sandbeck Industrial Estate, and in 1995, into offices in Armley.[4]

In 1995 it acquired Combined Precision Components.[5] As it focused on distribution, its manufacturing operations were sold the same year.[3] In 1996 it bought the United States distributor, Premier Industrial Corporation,[6] and changed its name to Premier Farnell.[3]

In 2001 the firm acquired Buck & Hickman,[7] a company which it sold in 2007.[8] In 2006, the firm sold Kent, its specialist automotive consumables business.[9]

In the mid-2000s, the firm developed from a catalogues and trade counter business into an e-commerce operation, under the direction of Harriet Green, CEO, who joined the business in 2006.[10][11]

In 2007 the firm launched its Greater China business, Premier Electronics, with a warehouse and distribution centre in WaiGaoQiao.[12]

Towards the end of 2008 the group began the closure of Cadillac Electric, which was part of the group's Industrial Products division.[13] During the course of 2008 the group acquired Hynetic Electronics,[14] an Indian distributor, and in early 2009 it acquired Microdis Electronics, an electronics distributor based in Poland.[15] In September 2009, it announced the acquisition of CadSoft Computer GmbH, developer of EAGLE electronic design automation software,[16] which it later sold.[17]

In 2010, the legacy brands of Premier Electronics, Farnell and Farnell-Newark were replaced by Farnell element14 in Europe, and by Newark element14 in the US. The name was taken from silicon, the 14th element in the Periodic Table, which is widely used in electronic components such as integrated circuits and discrete semiconductors.[18]

In March 2016, the group sold its Akron Brass subsidiary to IDEX Corporation for $224.2 million.[19]

On 17 October 2016, American company Avnet completed its acquisition of Premier Farnell in a deal valued at approximately £691 million,[2] leading to delisting of Premier Farnell shares.[20] In 2019 the business was rebranded as Farnell,[21] although the company's legal name continues to be Premier Farnell Limited.[22]

Structure and operations

The Raspberry Pi single-board computer

Premier Farnell Limited is a holding company with numerous subsidiaries in Europe and Asia.[23]

The group trades globally under the following names:[24]

element14 group

  • Farnell in the UK and Europe
  • Farnell export served by other countries
  • Newark in the United States, Canada and Mexico
  • element14 in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, China and Singapore
  • element14 community, an online information hub and forum for electrical engineers.

Other brands

  • CPC in the UK
  • Shenzhen Embest Technology
  • icDirectory Limited

Products

As of 2020, Premier Farnell stocks 950,000 products across its regional warehouses.[25] It also sells about half of the Raspberry Pi computers distributed worldwide.[26]

Development kits (often called ‘dev kits’) are a major specialism of Farnell. These are hardware kits typically centred around a particular microprocessor or microcontroller and are used by design engineers to develop and prototype new products. A survey of engineers on the element14 Community identified the big areas for the market in 2014-2015 as being lighting control, sensing and wireless. Another growth area for Farnell is the Internet of Things (IoT), which was the predominant theme at its stall at the electronica fair held in Munich on 11-14 November 2014, showcasing Farnell IoT products such as the RIoTboard.[27][28]

The BBC announced on 7 July 2015 that it was launching a new computer device called the micro:bit that would be given to every Year 7 school pupil in the UK (amounting to around one million computers) in October 2015 as part of its Make It Digital initiative. Farnell was named as one of the major partners in the consortium behind the micro:bit, taking responsibility for sourcing of components and overseeing the manufacturing process.[29][30]

Awards

  • ECMOD Direct Commerce Award for the best online business B2B, 2012 [31]
  • BiTC Corporate Responsibility Index – Platinum status, 2012 [32]
  • Ethisphere Institute – World's Most Ethical Companies List, 2012 [33]

References

  1. ↑ "Our Company - what we do". Premier Farnell. 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Avnet completes the acquisition of Premier Farnell PLC". Wall Street online. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "History". Premier Farnell. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Farnell: Armley office workers give school makeover". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  5. ↑ "Farnell Electronics". FT Business. 1995. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "pounds 1.9bn Premier buy to propel Farnell into Footsie". The Independent. 24 January 1996. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  7. ↑ "Buck & Hickman celebrate 180 years of success". Coventry Telegraph. 14 May 2010. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "Engineering Products, Services & Suppliers | Source". Engineeringtalk.com. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "Premier Farnell sells Kent auto business". EE Times. 20 July 2006. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  10. ↑ "Thomas Cook's Harriet Green: 'My challenge in life is achieving balance'". The Guardian. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Harriet Green, CEO Premier Farnell awarded O.B.E for services to the electronics industry". Farnell UK. 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "Premier Farnell Heads East With Launch of New Business in China". PR Newswire. 2007. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  13. ↑ "Michigan's Cadillac Electric Closes Doors". Electrical Wholesaling. 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  14. ↑ "Premier Farnell Acquires Assets of Hynetic Electronics". Efytimes.com. 5 February 2008. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  15. ↑ "Premier Farnell buys part of Microdis Electronics". E-biz. 8 January 2009. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  16. ↑ "Premier Farnell buys design software firm CadSoft". Electronics Weekly. September 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  17. ↑ "Premier Farnell Completes Sale Of Cadsoft To Autodesk". Morningstar. June 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  18. ↑ "4 Major uses for silicon in technology". Electronic Products. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  19. ↑ "IDEX Corporation Completes Acquisition of Akron Brass". IDEX Corporation. March 2016. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  20. ↑ "Premier Farnell PLC Suspension of Listing and Trading of Shares". ADVFN. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  21. ↑ "Our Heritage". www.farnell.com. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  22. ↑ "PREMIER FARNELL LIMITED". Companies House. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  23. ↑ "Premier Farnell Limited - annual report and financial statements". Companies House. July 2018. pp. 19–20. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  24. ↑ "Our Brands". Premier Farnell. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  25. ↑ "Products and Expertise". www.farnell.com. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  26. ↑ "Raspberry Pi sales fail to turn around Premier Farnell's luck". 20 September 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  27. ↑ "What next for the dev kit?". New Electronics. 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  28. ↑ "element14 to Make IoT a Reality at Embedded World 2014". Control Engineering Asia. 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  29. ↑ "Groundbreaking initiative to inspire digital creativity and develop a new generation of tech pioneers". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  30. ↑ Stuart Dredge. "BBC Micro Bit will complement Raspberry Pi not compete with it". The Guardian.
  31. ↑ "ECMOD Direct Commerce Award Winners". Direct Commerce. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  32. ↑ "Premier Farnell retains Business in the Community Platinum status for third year running". Callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  33. ↑ "Premier Farnell retains Business in the Community Platinum status for third year running | Europe, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous, UK News". Electronics-sourcing.com. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
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