Mark Burr-Lonnon, Senior Vice President of Global Service & EMEA and APAC Business, helps guide Mouser Electronics’ global service strategy, as well as day-to-day international efforts in EMEA and Asia including Japan. Under Mark Mouser has quickly grown from a small U.S. electronics distributor into a top 10 global distributor with more than $3 billion in annual revenue, focused on serving the unique needs of design engineers and buyers worldwide. ELE Times caught up with Mark Burr-Lonnon to discuss the challenges before the company and what lies in store for the future. Excerpts.
ELE Times: How challenging was 2022 for electronic component distributors, and what lies ahead in 2023?
Mark: After two years of uncertainty, 2022 has been a reassuring year for economies across the world. Supply chains have been stabilizing steadily. Manufacturers are facing some challenges in keeping up with the increased demand for parts, which also indicates an upward trend in overall demand and consumption.
As a top 10 global distributor of electronic components offering the widest selection of components to augment product choices for design engineers and purchasing professionals, Mouser Electronics’ key strategy has been to build inventory. We now hold over $1.8 billion in stock comprising more than one million part numbers available to sell (ATS). In line with our commitment towards design support and quality assurance, we are spreading our reach globally with new service centers and expanding our state-of-the-art, global distribution center to double its capacity.
ELE Times: Tell us about the business outlook for the remainder of 2023 from Mouser’s perspective?
Mark: Our revenue grew by more than $2 billion over the last two years, with 25% growth across all regions in 2022. We expect this upward trend in demand for electronic components to continue, fuelled by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, consumer electronics and wearables, the automotive industry and healthcare, to name a few.
Our focus on introducing new products and building inventory has put us in a strong position to meet the rising demand for semiconductors and electronic components. In 2022, we launched more than 53,000 new part numbers, including 12,000 in Q4-2022, plus 15,000 new parts were added in the first quarter of 2023. We are an authorized distributor for more than 1,200 manufacturers globally, and our partners rely on us to introduce their newest products into the market.
ELE Times: What advice would you give to purchasing professionals while sourcing the components?
Mark: We are aware that counterfeit products are an issue in the open market. We strongly advise buyers to invest in genuine components and purchase components from authorised and franchise distributors. As an authorized global distributor for leading manufacturers worldwide, we offer our customers 100% genuine, certified products that can be fully traced to our manufacturer partners.
To deal with the challenge of on-time sourcing, we recommend that buyers source their requirements in advance and schedule their supplies over a period, say six months or a year. Planning and ordering in advance helps mitigate sourcing delays and can speed up time-to-market. When a buyer schedules an inventory with us, whether it is for new components or those that require regular replenishment, we work to satisfy the request on time for the customer.
It is also important that design engineers eliminate the risk of choosing end-of-life components. To help avoid out-of-stock issues, project delays and costly redesigns, Mouser provides the tools and resources to identify end-of-life components, and labels not recommended for new design (NRND) with lifecycles on products. FORTE, our intelligent BOM tool, maps customers’ requirements to the best available current alternatives and informs on relevance and outdated part numbers.
We also provide a wealth of information through our resource center, which hosts an ECAD design library, conversion calculators, and an extensive library of product data sheets and technical content.
ELE Times: How are the emerging technologies and their Implementation helping to drive the demand?
Mark: New technologies rely on autonomous intelligent machines to deliver higher speeds, greater accuracy, fewer errors, and extreme customization. Rapid digitalization across all spheres of business and society will push the demand for semiconductors and electronic components up.
Mouser is focusing on the introduction of new products and technologies from our manufacturer partners, and we continue to support digital transformation through our wide inventory of the latest PLCs, sensors, actuators, switchgears, connectors and a host of other components and devices essential for new designs and prototypes.
ELE Times: Which sector has the potential growth orientation in India and why?
Mark: India presents a huge opportunity for emerging technologies for many reasons. It is a hub of innovation, has a large captive market, and infrastructure in the country is developing in leaps and bounds. The education sector is promoting a climate of progress and experimentation. Also, the government’s thrust towards “Make in India” has brought about policy changes that encourage investment, innovation, and continued industrialization.
A large section of manufacturing processes in India is adopting newer, smart technologies for greater productivity gains. The automotive sector has shown consistent and robust growth year on year, and we expect the uptick to continue. And then there are also the revolutionary players in the automotive realm— the EV start-ups. Advanced electronics will be in demand from the indigenous defence and aerospace industries, as well with a huge emphasis on consequent growth.
Agriculture, too, is undergoing a major transformation with the adoption of smart farming practices and the impetus provided by the government through the Digital Agriculture Mission (DAM).
We also expect to see an increased need for components in the energy, power, transportation, healthcare, and telecommunications sectors.
ELE Times: What is the future of Electronic Components Distributors? What is Mouser doing to prepare for future growth?
Mark: Going by current trends, I think the market for electronic components can only grow. The modern world runs on electronic components. There have been issues in manufacturing and logistics in the past couple of years due to the global pandemic, but supply chains are stabilizing, and we see renewed vigour in IT investments and rollout.
As distributors, we worked very hard to serve our customers through times of uncertainty, and right now we are in a strong position on our inventory. We are doubling our capacity in anticipation of future demand and have invested in automation to ensure that we can continue to process up to 14 orders per minute, getting them sealed and labelled, and ready to ship. We also offer an industry-leading e-commerce website to transact business in 27 currencies and 21 languages across the globe.
ELE Times: How are you expanding your global footprint to serve customers?
Mark: Mouser is the fastest-growing distributor in our industry, with 27 offices across the globe. Our India operation is growing, with more than 850 people supporting both front and back-end operations in the entire global market.
A most recent addition has been the new Mouser office at Pune, which we feel will be able to cater to the buyers in Western India and reach out to the strong industrial base in the region. We see a great opportunity in India, specifically Pune, which has attracted large engineering, automotive and industrial firms.
We are growing in other regions, too, such as Europe. Mouser recently expanded office space in Barcelona to accommodate more team members to cater to both Spain and Portugal in local languages. We saw 30% growth in our EMEA market in 2022 and continuously expanding our operations to cater to the region. We currently have the strength of 250 team members serving the EMEA market from 10 Customer Service Centers across the EMEA region.
ELE Times: What has been Mouser’s investment trend for market expansion?
Mark: With a strong investment in inventory, we continue to bolster our offerings for customers. Over the last two years, we added more than 170 new manufacturers to our line card, including numerous embedded manufacturer brands.
In terms of processing orders, over the last few years, we have been steadily investing in greater automation in our warehouse to handle the growth in demand. We now use 138 Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs), the largest number owned by any company globally. Our Autostore is a recent addition that deploys robots for picking parts. We have over 1,400 employees in the Distribution Center and are doubling our capacity with a major new expansion underway, due to open in 2024. We will continue to add advanced automation technology and expand our service centers to serve our customers more efficiently.
ELE Times: What Factors are affecting the components distribution Industry? What do you see the distribution industry will look like five years down the line? What kind of preparations are required to face future challenges?
Mark: The industry has seen challenges due to several reasons, ranging from the global pandemic to other geo-political issues. Currently, the demand trends are positive, and supply has slowly recovered as manufacturers catch up. During the early months of 2023, the industry has seen ups and downs and we expect to see slower growth than in previous years. The chip shortage is improving and is expected to ease by 2024. The auto industry may continue to face some shortages.
With the dynamics that characterize our world today, it would be presumptuous to speculate five years into the future. However, we are upbeat about the cutting-edge developments in the electronic components industry, from sensor technology to wireless devices. Mouser is well-positioned to keep driving innovation for its customers in an ever-evolving global market. The digital revolution is accelerating, and keeping up with the demand for components will be among the greatest challenges of the future.
