OUR COMPANY
Premier Farnell plc is a leading, high service, multi-channel distribution group supporting millions of engineers and purchasing professionals globally through its Group companies. Our products range from electronic components to industrial products from over 3,500 leading suppliers.
OUR HISTORY
We are proud of our history and the strong backgrounds of the individual companies that make up the Premier Farnell group as we know it today. Our company values are not new, they have been the guiding principles that have shaped the growth of our organisation and will continue to do so as we drive forward with renewed vigour and energy. |
| 1939 - A.C.Farnell Limited founded The business was founded by Alan Farnell and Arthur Woffenden to sell radio parts. In the 1940's it switched to the wholesale market. |
| 1966 - Farnell Electronics floated on the London Stock Exchange At this time, the Group’s turnover was c.£2million. |
| 1980 - Turnover reached c.£25 million Organic expansion coupled with acquisitions started the Group’s international expansion during the 1980’s. |
| 1990 - Turnover reached c.£200 million |
| 1995 March - Manufacturing Division sold to focus solely on component distribution. |
| 1995 May - Combined Precision Components (CPC) acquired |
| 1996 February - Farnell Electronics acquired Premier Industrial Corporation for $2.8 billion (£1.85 billion); Premier Farnell created Premier Industrial Corporation was the leading US catalogue distributor of electronic components. It was founded in 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was incorporated by the Mandel brothers in 1946. It had two divisions: Electronics Distribution, including Newark Electronics (acquired in 1968) and MCM; and General Products. (The businesses remaining from this latter division are Akron Brass, Cadillac, TPC Wire & Cable and KENT. They currently make up Premier Farnell’s Industrial Products Division). |
| 1997 January - Farnell Electronic Services (FES) sold A volume distribution business sold to Arrow Electronics for $300million (£187million). |
| 1997 January - Sir Malcolm Bates appointed Chairman |
| 1998 July - John Hirst appointed Chief Executive John undertook a strategic review and concluded that the businesses were under invested, lacked key skills and were product and supplier led, rather than being customer led. |
| 1999 January - ‘Challenge Program’ launched A programme to invest some £40m in leading edge information systems. Investment was made in three key areas - Talent, Technology and Service. |
| 2000 - Dotcom / Y2K electronics boom peaks In 2001, electronics market began to decline in the US, UK and Europe following an unprecedented peak. Premier Farnell moved fast to take out cost in the US and UK. |
| 2001 July - Buck & Hickman acquired for £66 million Buck & Hickman, a leading UK business-to-business distributor of industrial tools and supplies, was acquired to expand the product and service offer to customers. |
| 2002 June - Special Conversion Right offered to Preference shareholders Resulted in the conversion of 19.5 million Preference Shares and the issue of 89.8 million new Ordinary Shares. This gave the Group a more balanced and efficient capital structure. |
| 2003 March - Challenge Program completed and ‘InOne’ branding launched Programme completed with the launch of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems in the UK and US. The ‘InOne’ suffix was added to four marketing and distribution businesses to promote the improvements in product range and services achieved under the Challenge Program. |
| 2005 February - Premier Farnell de-lists from New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and in September de-registers from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) |
 2005 March - Sir Peter Gershon CBE appointed Chairman. |
| 2005 July - John Hirst resigns; Sir Peter Gershon assumes executive responsibility until the appointment of a new Chief Executive. |
 2006 April - Harriet Green appointed as Group Chief Executive; Sir Peter Gershon reverted to being Non-Executive Chairman |
| 2006 July - KENT sold A specialist automotive consumables business was sold to Barnes Group Inc. for approx £22million. |
| 2006 October - Outcome of strategic business review announced along with plans for implementation |
| 2007 February - InOne removed from Company names |
 2007 April - Premier Electronics launched in ChinaBuckHickman InOne sold to The BSS Group PLC for a total consideration, before costs of disposal of approx £27 million (on a cash and debt free basis) |
 2007 May - Launch of Live Edge environmental design challenge - Live Edge, Electronic Design for the Global Environment. Find out more about Live Edge |
| 2008 January - - First ever winner of Live Edge announced - Acquired part of the trade and net assets of Hynetic Electronics and began operations as Farnell India |
| 2008 December - Microdis Electronics Acquired part of the assets and trading rights of Microdis Electronics in Eastern Europe |
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