Press Releases

RS Components doubles size of Shanghai warehouse & will double number of product lines in China and Asia Pacific

Range extension with fully stocked inventory in China enables RS Components to offer fast and reliable next day delivery service to customers

Malaysia, 19 April 2011 :

RS Components, the world’s largest high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products and the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE: ECM), announced today the opening of a newly expanded warehouse in Shanghai, China, to enhance its product and service offering to customers in one of the key growth markets for the company in the Asia Pacific region. This substantial stock up will provide an extensive and fully stocked inventory within China of over 135,000 product lines, 3.5 times more than the nearest competitor, furthering the RS Components lead as the number one high service electronics distributor in China and the region.

RS Components business in China has achieved robust growth with strong sales of both electronics and maintenance products for the past year. To meet growing demand in China, which is the largest electronics components market in the world, the company has doubled the size of its warehouse to 4,942sqm, which is strategically located at Shanghai’s only free trade zone, the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone. The new warehouse will combine both non-bonded and bonded stocks in one location, which supports the company’s promise to customers of same day despatch of available local stocks.

RS Components has also recently invested in a state of the art forecasting and web demand software to better track and anticipate customer demand. This enables RS Components to stock what customers want and need.

With the company’s core competence in handling the entire supply chain process in-house, RS Components is able to provide customers assurance of fast next day delivery to 200 cities in China, including tier one cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta.

RS Components is also introducing in China 30,000 products from the Semiconductor, Passive, Connector and Electro-mechanical lines that will come in industry standard production packaging. Available in tape and reel, tube, tray and other industry standard packaging, it will be an added benefit for customers who are engaged in electronic production in China.

Richard Huxley, Regional Manager, Asia Pacific said, “We are the number one high service electronics distributor in China and Asia Pacific. We understand that in today’s fast and competitive world, operational excellence and speed to market are crucial. Our entire business model is focused on speed of delivery, as well as ease of selection, design, replacement and purchase. That is why we are known as the trusted and reliable source for engineers and procurement specialists worldwide.”

The announcements today are just the first of many initiatives in RS Components overall China and Asia Pacific investment strategy. It is the leading distributor that invests in and holds stocks of all high demand products in warehouses across the region for optimum availability to customers. It employs about 1,000 employees in Asia Pacific, of which there is a team of 260 based in China alone. The company will be increasing the number of employees based in China due to the strong growth of the market. 

New RS Components unveils 2011 product range now available in three formats

RS Components comprehensive multi-channel strategy ensures that customers have various easy and convenient means to access and order from the RS Components extensive range of 500,000 products, sourced from over 2,500 global suppliers. 

The digital catalogue on a USB memory stick is the latest addition from RS Components, aimed to serve tech-savvy engineers. 

“The newly launched digital catalogue is yet another step to meet the needs of China’s increasingly tech-savvy engineers,” said Huxley. “Developed in response to customers’ evolving work patterns and increasing mobility, engineers that are constantly on the go now have a convenient alternative to access product information on over 108,000 products. With the advent of information technology, this digital catalogue will help our customers become more efficient in their review, selection and procurement processes.”

The paper catalogue (China edition) consists of 58,000 high volume products. Customers can also view RS online – a fully integrated transactional website, featuring the global offer of 500,000 products, with a continuous product introduction programme.