Avnet led electronic-components distributors in reported 2002 global revenue, while Arrow led several categories in a 2003 survey of US procurement professionals. Those were different rankings: one measured revenue, the other buyers’ answers about distributors they used and preferred.
What charts did Avnet and Arrow top?
In a May 12, 2003 report, EE Times described Avnet as the world’s largest electronic-components distributor by revenue for a second consecutive year. Avnet reported $8.9 billion in global revenue for calendar year 2002. Arrow, by contrast, led several measures in EBN’s 2003 Distributor Customer Evaluation Survey.
The survey percentages below are shares of respondents naming a distributor, not shares of the market or sales. The figures therefore cannot be compared directly with Avnet’s revenue ranking.
Revenue and overall procurement
| Measure | Reported result | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Global distributor revenue, calendar year 2002 | Avnet: $8.9 billion | EE Times called Avnet the No. 1 global electronic-components distributor and said it had held the position for a second year running. |
| Distributors named by survey respondents as sources of procured parts | Arrow: 68%; Avnet: 56.6%; Future Electronics: 43.4%; TTI: 35.8%; Digi-Key: 25.2% | EBN survey response percentages reported by EE Times in 2003; not market shares. |
Preference and service categories
- Ease of doing business across product categories: Arrow led at 20.1%, followed by Avnet at 15.3% and Future Electronics at 9.2%.
- Preferred semiconductor distributor: Arrow ranked first, Avnet second, and Future Electronics third.
- Preferred passive-components distributor: TTI ranked first, Arrow second, Digi-Key third, and Avnet fourth.
- Best electronic-commerce services: Arrow was named by 26.6% of respondents, up from 12.4% the prior year. Digi-Key received 23.4%, down from 26.4% the prior year.
These were separate survey questions and categories, not a single overall score. The results show why “top” depends on what is being measured: revenue, whether buyers procured from a distributor, category preference, or service evaluations.
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Who took part in the 2003 survey?
EBN reported that 390 completed questionnaires were included. It emailed questionnaires to US procurement professionals on April 11, followed up on April 16, and accepted responses through April 18, 2003. Respondents were 70% original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and 30% electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers. The account described the sample as reflecting the US population with a plus-or-minus standard deviation of 4.8 percentage points; that is the publication’s wording, not a conventional margin-of-error estimate.
The sample and date matter when interpreting the percentages: they report the answers of surveyed US procurement professionals and business managers in 2003. They do not establish how distributors rank today or in other markets.
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What mattered to buyers beyond rankings?
The 2003 report pointed to practical service factors alongside price and product availability: on-time delivery, customer relationships, and services that could help manufacturers manage inventory and production. Examples included automatic replenishment, in-plant stores, inventory and demand forecasting, just-in-time delivery, and electronic-commerce tools. These functions help explain why a buyer might favor a distributor for one need without making it the leader on every measure.
Inventory management was not universal among survey participants. A companion account of the EBN survey, published by EDN in 2003, reported that 79% did not use a distributor for vendor-managed inventory (VMI). Among respondents who did use distributor inventory management, 69.9% said their companies had increased use during the previous year, and 70.8% expected to increase use in the next 12 months. These figures describe users’ reported behavior and expectations at the time, not later outcomes.
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Why the article’s comments are historical, not current rankings
Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Matthew Sheerin said in 2003 that “Avnet and Arrow probably have more than 50% of the distributor total available market in North America, and I would have been surprised if they didn’t rank No. 1 and No. 2,”. This was an attributed analyst opinion in the contemporary report, not an independently established current market-share figure.
Roy Vallee, then Avnet chairman and chief executive, framed customer growth in terms of suppliers seeking more design work and broader reach across market segments, and customers seeking help bringing products to market faster and lowering costs. The report also illustrated the value of responsiveness with Kentrox senior semiconductor buyer Don Ciardi’s urgent example: “It’s 3 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon, a manufacturing line just went down, and I need a part here tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock,”. Both remarks belong to the 2003 account and describe the concerns of that period.
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Does this make Avnet or Arrow the best distributor?
No universal winner follows from these figures. Avnet led the reported revenue ranking for 2002; Arrow led multiple respondent-based survey measures in 2003, while other distributors led specific categories such as passive components. The results are useful as a snapshot of how a particular survey measured the industry at the time, not as a current comparison or a recommendation for choosing a distributor now.
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