EDS bills itself as the “premier distribution event of the year”, and fittingly, the festivities kicked off with a breakfast/networking event hosted by TTI, a Fort Worth-based distributor of passive, interconnect, and electromechanical components on pace for $3 billion+ in worldwide sales in 2014.
You may recall that, in 2000, TTI acquired Mouser Electronics, a foremost catalog-oriented distributor based in Mansfield, TX, but in recent years, TTI has become famous for its specialized inventory focused on capacitors, resistors, and connectors and for its quirky video series starring “The Specialist,” a corporate superhero who fights crime and solves tough distribution problems.
See: Photos of the Day: TTI’s kick-off breakfast at EDS 2014
But at EDS, they were all business. The theme of this year’s presentation was “The Unbreakable Supply Chain,” which includes in-house solutions and TTI’s family of partner companies including Mouser and Sager Electronics, among others.
Mike Morton, the president of TTI Americas, explained how their goal for this year is $1 billion in North American sales, which would place them at 8% growth. Right now, they’re on pace for a 15% boost in worldwide growth, taking them to $3 billon in global sales.
More than 50% of TTI’s business is in the passives space, but their fastest-growing segment is interconnects, and by 2015, it’ll be a 50/50 split between passives and interconnects. As of now, 80% of their components going into the transportation sector are interconnects.
Since 2010, TTI’s customer base has been steadily increasing, through 13,755 customers (active & parent) in 2013. And TTI wasn’t above acknowledging areas in need of improvement — last year, 60% of customers bought two or less product types from them. Obviously, they’d like to increase that figure to at least eight product types.
Still, sales are booming, and Glenn Smith, the CEO of Mouser, noted that in Q1 2014, they have more than 205,000 accounts, which includes 50,000 new accounts. For Mouser, the Americas represent 54% of their business, and by next year, North American sales will account for less than 50% of global activity. This isn’t a slight on the American market but an indicator of rising European and Asian markets.
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And here’s a figure that’s a touch surprising — 48% of Mouser’s total sales are web orders. But considering that Mouser.com enjoys 205,000 daily visits — including 89,000 unique visitors — and the expanding e-commerce landscape, perhaps this isn’t the most shocking news.
Here’s to a fantastic EDS 2014!
