Continuing its push into the B2B distribution channel, Conrad Electronic has bought Rapid Electronics, the Colchester, UK-based component distributor. And it seems certain the ambitious German distributor will not stop there.
Conrad says that acquisitions are a substantial part of its new Business Supplies strategy to speed up the development process by creating synergies in Sales, Marketing and Purchasing and to benefit from long term market experience.
Since its inception in 1979 – in a room over a garage, where else? – Rapid has grown, well rapidly, to be one of the UK’s leading distributors of electronic components, cables and connectors, electrical products, tools and educational resources. The company is based in a 100,000 sq ft facility in Colchester and operates in UK with around 150 employees. Rapid has over 65,000 parts in in its inventory.
“The Conrad Business Supplies strategy is focusing on design engineers, MRO’s, CEMs and craftsmen. Conrad Electronic is massively increasing the component offering daily and we are working on the internationalization of our services”, says Holger Ruban, Director Conrad Business Supplies.
Existing customer relations with Rapid Electronic will not be affected by any changes to ensure a continuation and a further extension of established partnerships. Conrad syas that operation related redundancies of employees are not planned.
Rapid is particularly strong in the UK educational market. in 2011, it relaunched its website.
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