Electrocomponents plc RS Radiospares Radionics Allied Electronics
Annual report & accounts 2009
The Group’s free cash flow of £78m represented 118% of profit after tax—Simon Boddie, Group Finance Director

Nature of the business

Electrocomponents plc is a high service distributor of electronics, electromechanical and wider industrial products. The Group operates in 27 countries and sells to most of the remaining countries of the world via third party distributors.

The Group satisfies the small quantity product needs of its 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 approximately £100 although the range of order values is wide. The Group has a large number of customers from a wide range of industry sectors with diverse product demands. This means that the Group manages tens of thousands of orders for customers across the world each working day.

Strategy

We continue to implement our strategy and the four areas identified to drive the Group’s future performance. A more detailed explanation of the strategy and the progress that we have made on each of these areas is provided in the Chief Executive’s Review.