Avnet’s 100-year journey to our current position on the FORTUNE 200 parallels computing’s most disruptive milestones. Whenever visionaries have spawned computing breakthroughs, our job has been to make it possible to bring them to market. As a result, our customers and partners have thrived at every turn, increasingly confident that they will be ideally positioned for the next disruption.
Today, Avnet’s expertise in components distribution and our deep knowledge of the global supply chain continues to enable us to support our customers and accelerate technology. With a sharpened focus on our primary components distribution business, the company continues to help supplier partners deploy their technologies to meet end customers’ needs.
As Avnet CEO Phil Gallagher noted, “In one hundred years, Avnet has gone from a small components shop to a global distributor firmly set at the center of the technology value chain.”
Avnet was formed in 1921 when the U.S. government lifted its ban on private radio, prompting Charles Avnet, a 33-year-old immigrant fresh from Russia, to begin buying and selling surplus radio parts on Manhattan’s Radio Row. Then came antennas, connectors and something epochal: calculating machines. Equipped with vacuum tubes adapted from radio, these computers, Charles proclaimed at the time, would alter human history forever.
Throughout the years, Avnet has embarked on a continuous transformation alongside the ever-evolving technology market. And while one hundred years is an enviable run, we prefer to think of it as a great start.
Our customers’ primary focus is bringing new innovative products to market and assuring the supply of that product —and that’s where Avnet brings value to the table. We continue to act as an extension of their business to ensure they have access to the latest technology from our leading supplier partners as well as a healthy supply chain. This is certainly demonstrated by our more than one million customers and 1,400+ suppliers in 125 countries around the world.
As we look ahead to what’s next, it is an affirmation of our enduring relationships that have helped our customers, suppliers and partners effectively navigate an increasingly complex technology landscape. Trust and resiliency have been key in supporting our suppliers and customers as they grow in the marketplace and will define us as we continue to stand by them in an ever-changing world
We all reach further – together.
