For the first time Anglia Components is putting boots on the ground in Europe. The Wisbech, UK-based distributor has signed an enhanced franchise agreement with STMicroelectronics (ST) that covers the Nordic and Baltic regions.
John Bowman, Anglia Marketing Director, commented: “This strategic development reflects STMicroelectronics’ confidence in Anglia’s ability to drive market growth in these territories. It also reinforces the leading semiconductor company’s commitment to a regional distribution model, in contrast to the globalised, homogenous approach adopted by many US-based chip makers which removes customer choice.”
To spurt the new business, Anglia is recruiting a Managing Director who will be based in one of the territories and two Field Applications Engineers to support customer design-in activity.
Said Bowman: “We’ve had two years serving small quantities through Anglia Live into the European mainland, getting an understanding of those markets and starting to seed new designs with small quantities.
“We have supplied development kits helping people with prototyping. It’s given us a good database of knowledge and a feel for all of the territories that are represented by the European mass, if you like. The Nordics and Baltics in particular, we see really good synergy with the UK market. They represent a very similar size by value.”
Anglia sees the applications landscape as very similar to the UK and Ireland, notwithstanding the specialisation in wireless in the Nordic territories.
“There is a very high proportion of SMES, good mix of OEMs and SMEs. The similarities to the UK just go on and on,” remarked Bowman.
Anglia’s analysis of the distribution market in the Nordics, is that it is “very sparse,” says Bowman.
“Models like Anglia don’t exist. It’s dominated by a combination of the global broadliners and high service distributors.”
Anglia thinks the Nordic market is under-serviced by distribution. “It’s in need of a distributor with of course an excellent e-commerce platform, but a distributor that likes to talk to customers, likes to understand customers,” is Bowman’s analysis.
“Every conversation I have with a customer, I learn things and when we learn what customers’ needs are, we’re better able to serve them.
“Terms are the same as we have for the all the European territories, so a FedEx one to two day service as well as a lower carbon footprint, with the product being despatched from our UK base.”
Bowman points to the Nordic countries being way ahead of the curve for decades in considering environmental impact of not just their business transactions, but people’s personal transaction.
“Their drive towards a more sustainable and reduced footprint cascades all the way through into purchasing decisions that they make.”
Anglia is mulling its inventory investment, which says Bowman, “is always based on a combination of factors. We have very strong algorithms that actually ensure that we’re investing in the right areas, even if customers can’t predict their demand. We can predict it for them. Of course, with new customers with new demand, we have to get up to speed very quickly with their demand patterns.”
Bowman believes applications in the Nordics and Baltics are similar to the UK and Ireland.
“What we tend to do with ST starts with the microcontroller and then we populate around the microcontroller as we understand more and more of the customer’s application needs, bringing in MEMS, accelerometers, etcetera, bringing in power management.
“One particular area where I think there will be an increase in demand is in ST’s wireless products, so perhaps some increase in investment around wireless technologies.”
Anglia will look to cover both streams of business in terms of getting very involved in designing to prototype and then offering production volumes.
Says Bowman: “We have the combination of having a really strong e-commerce platform, but a huge belief in talking to customers and recognising new business development.
“It’s really making a larger footprint and increased relevance to the customer rather than something being purely transactional – relationship building, getting that deeper knowledge and understanding of the customer’s needs, and moving things on from there.
“It’s our belief that in the market trends that we’re seeing and what’s happening in the distribution market increasingly it’s important to be present in more than one territory,” asserts Bowman.
Comments Frank Wolinski, VP Channel Sales, EMEA at STMicroelectronics: “We are impressed by the innovation and ambition shown by Anglia. They have demonstrated their commitment to ST with initiatives such as the Ezysample program, which enables customers to get free samples of every ST new product introduction (NPI), and the fact that they stock more ST devkits than any other distributor. We believe that Anglia can bring the same levels of service and customer engagement for ST in the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) and the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) that they have offered for over 50 years to customers in the UK and Ireland, expanding ST’s market presence in these important regions.”
Just as in the UK and Ireland, Nordic and Baltic customers buying ST through Anglia can also use Anglia Live, Anglia’s e-commerce platform which offers a FedEx 1-2 day delivery service across the region.
