AVX Corporation - Among the Leading Developer and Supplier of Best-in-class Electronic Components
AVX Corporation is a leading worldwide manufacturer and supplier of electronic components. The company has their regional offices in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. They have research, manufacturing, and customer support facilities in 15 countries around the world. AVX Corporation serves a broad range of markets including: computer, telecommunications infrastructure, cellular, industrial, automotive, consumer, military, and medical sectors. For the automotive sector, the company contributes toward new technologies for safety, engine control, infotainment, and chassis control. In the medical sector, the company contributes by offering advanced products that are critical for implantable devices that regulate and stimulate the heart, bring sound to the hearing-impaired and sight to those with vision problems. The company has 9,900 employees worldwide and had sales of 1.54 billion in 2012. AVX Corporation is a 71 percent owned subsidiary of Kyocera Electronics Corporation and have their headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina. The headquarters in South Carolina is the largest industrial employer in Horry County. The company has three business units that include automotive braking, cell phones, copiers, hearing aids and locomotives. The company began in 1972 with the making of ceramic capacitors as a subsidiary of Aerovox Corporation.
Their product line consists of ceramic capacitors, low inductances/signal integrity, RF products, energy harvesting, tantalum capacitors, circuit protection, filters, connectors, piezoelectric devices, and timing products. Within the ceramic capacitors product line consists of surface mount multilayer ceramic capacitors, switch mode power supply capacitors (SMPS), leaded multilayer ceramic capacitors, and high voltage capacitors. The low inductance signal integrity line consists of reverse geometry, interdigitated, ultra lows inductance, core cap hybrid niobium oxide, low inductance array. The tantalum capacitors include surface mount tantalum capacitors, leaded tantalum capacitors, niobium and oxide/oxicap. Today their common stock is priced at 13.39 dollars on the New York Stock Exchange.
Digi-Key Corporation - Delivering Only High Performing Electronic Components
Digi-Key Corporation is a well-known electronics distributor in North America, known for electronic components and all types of board level components. The company was founded in 1972 by Ronald Stordahl, who derived the company name from the Digi-Keyer Kit, which was a digital electronic keyer kit that he developed for amateur radio enthusiasts. The company is still privately owned by the same man, although Mark Larson was brought on as general manager in 1976 and subsequently president in 1985. It was Mark Larson that expanded the company's reach from just the hobbyist market to the global market that it serves to this day.
Today, it is the 4th largest electronic component distributor in North America and the 5th largest in the world. It has actually been ranked #1 as the Overall Most Preferred Distributor, which is a huge accomplishment in the electronic components market. This award is based on industry surveys and customer reviews of the product quality, service, responsiveness, pricing, and several other factors. What is more impressive is that Digi-Key has been awarded this for 16 consecutive years. A main factor for this would have to be the customer service Digi-Key claims to provide. A statistic to consider is that around 99.95% of all orders to this company ship out the same day. Digi-Key has been continuing to expand over the years, notably in 1995 when it introduced its website with complete online access and to its inventory and product information. The company has 82 websites in eight different languages, essentially making it the one-stop shop for all information on anything related electronics components, including pricing, specifications, and capabilities. After the recession of 2008, the company continued exponential growth, moving from 16th largest to 5th largest among over 300 electronics components distributors.
This privately owned company only has one location in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, USA. However, its facility is a whopping 800,000 square feet with over 2,500 employees at that physical location. This one facility stocks over 500,000 products from 470 different manufacturers, serving over 170 countries around the world. As of late, it has been increasing its involvement in supplying large production quantities for OEMS and contract manufacturers. Annual sales top $1.5 billion, with over 2.9 million orders processed yearly to an estimated 502,851 customers a year.
