Overview of business
We are the leading high service distributor to engineers worldwide. The Group operates in 27 countries distributing components under the trading brands of RS, Radiospares, Radionics and Allied Electronics. Through our distributor network, we also provide this service to a further 38 countries. We cover around 90% of the world’s GDP.
We satisfy the small quantity product needs of our customers who are typically electronics or maintenance engineers in business. A large number of high quality goods are stocked, which are dispatched the same day that the order is received. The average customer order value is around £100 although the range of order values is wide. The Group manages tens of thousands of orders for customers across the world each working day.
Markets
We are focused on strengthening our positions in Continental Europe, North America and Asia Pacific which collectively represents 65% of our Group’s revenue while maintaining our profitable UK business.
We have reorganised our Continental Europe and Asia Pacific regions to implement the strategy faster and improve performance. A more consistent, streamlined and cross‑regional approach has been introduced to better serve our customers. In keeping with the Group’s strategy resources have been reallocated from sales to marketing and from off‑line to on‑line activities.
In North America our e‑Commerce revenue has increased by nearly 45% and we have continued to exploit both our extensive local sales office presence and supplier relationships to drive sales.
Business systems
All our businesses in Continental Europe and the UK operate on a single integrated regional system. Likewise, our Asian business operates from a separate integrated system. This enables us to improve efficiency, share best practice, reduce our risk profile and maintain our high customer service levels.
| Region | Revenue | % of Group revenue |
Headline contribution % of revenue |
Market position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 347 | 36% | 22% | No. 1 |
| North America | 187 | 19% | 13% | No. 3 |
| Asia Pacific | 102 | 10% | 7% | No. 1 |
| International | 636 | 65% | 17% | No. 1 |
| UK | 339 | 35% | 27% | No. 1 |
| Group | 975 | 100% | 21% | No. 1 |
