Premier Farnell appoints King

GLOBAL electronic components distributor Premier Farnell has made a major appointment.

Andy King has joined the Leeds-based company as president of Farnell Europe and global head of the group’s electronic design engineering section.

Mr King is joining Premier Farnell from Arrow Electronics, where he was its European vice president of sales development. The role involved Mr King addressing the various needs of different customers across Eurooe, the Middle East and Africa.

Premier Farnell said Mr King’s experience would match its aims to grow profits by focussing on the global electronic design engineering sector.

Premier, which supports millions of engineers and purchasing professionals globally through its distribution network, saw pre-tax profits increase from £62.3m to £71.2m for the year ended February 3 on the back of increased revenues of 5% to £744.7m.

Laurence Bain, chief operating officer of Premier Farnell, said: “In line with our strategy to increase our focus on the global electronic design engineering segment, drive higher levels of business via the web and continue to internationalise our models into new and emerging markets for electronics, Andy is an excellent addition to the team to drive our strategy and deliver the results we need from Farnell.

“We are truly excited about his appointment and on behalf of our employees, suppliers and customers worldwide we give him a warm welcome.”

The company, which sells products ranging from batteries to microchips, said it had achieved double digit sales growth in Europe for the second year as well as developing its plans to develop further afield.

Mr King will join Premier Farnell on June 16.