Brands

The Group has a number of major brands. The most significant of these is ‘RS’ which is used all over the world, except in North America, France and Ireland where the ‘Allied’, ‘Radiospares’ and ‘Radionics’ brands are used respectively.

Geographic footprint

Our operating companies provide our high service level across countries representing around 80% of the world’s GDP. The Group’s Distributors serve Eastern Europe, Russia, Southern Europe, the Middle East and South America representing a further 10% of the world’s GDP.

Customer relationships

We supply around 1.5m customers from a wide range of industrial sectors. We have relationships with both the end users who use our products and also with the companies for whom they work. Our customers are typically electronics and maintenance engineers.

Supplier relationships

The relationships with our suppliers are an increasingly important factor in allowing us both to maintain high standards of product availability for our customers and to anticipate future customer needs. We purchase some half a million products from around 2,500 major suppliers throughout the world with a groupwide focus on global purchasing agreements. Our offer to electronics engineers is valuable to many of our suppliers, who would otherwise find the small order and immediate dispatch requirements of such customers difficult and costly to satisfy.

e‑Commerce

e‑Commerce provides the Group with the ability to reach a broad customer base and critically to reach our target electronics customers who are conducting a greater proportion of their product research on‑line. The channel also allows us to extend and promote our on‑line offer rapidly. On‑line merchandising is being used to highlight to customers relevant products and information during their on‑line journey providing improved customer experience and revenue opportunities. We are increasingly focusing on the provision of on‑line customer services giving our customers the flexibility they want to manage their business relationships with us on‑line.

Employees

The skills and support from our employees is extremely important to the Group. During the year we employed around 6,000 employees worldwide. The geographic spread of our employees is: 2,000 in the UK, 1,300 in Continental Europe, 800 in North America, 1,000 in Asia Pacific and 900 in the Group‑wide Processes.

Infrastructure

The Group recognises that the provision of a high service level is extremely important to our customers. Three areas of our infrastructure are particularly important:

Systems:	All our businesses in Continental Europe together with our UK business operate on a single integrated regional system. Likewise, our Asia Pacific business also operates from a separate integrated system. Operating on these robust and integrated platforms enables us to improve efficiency, share best practice and reduce our risk profile.
Facilities:	The Group has a well developed warehouse network across all our markets to support our customer needs. The operations and coordination at our warehouses is managed by our cross‑Group Supply Chain Process to ensure an efficient and cost effective use of our assets.
e‑Commerce:	The Group operates from a single website platform supporting the RS businesses in the UK, Continental Europe and Asia Pacific. This gives us the ability to roll out new developments quickly and efficiently across these regions, maximising the benefits to our customers. Allied, the Group’s North American business uses a separate web platform.