Rutronik extends co'op with Renesas

Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH, Europe's top 3 distributor, and Renesas Technology Europe, a leading manufacturer of semiconductors, have extended their distribution agreement to include the whole of Central Europe. As such, besides Germany and Switzerland, the broadline distributor Rutronik now also counts Austria, France and Benelux amongst its authorised franchise regions for Renesas. Following the integration of its distribution business, this manufacturer of semiconductors reduced its number of partners across Europe from 37 to the current figure of 13. As a result of this, Rutronik regards its own franchise expansion as the clear acknowledgement of its many years of successful cooperation in Germany and Switzerland, its pan-European market penetration plus its expertise as a solution provider. The prime focus of the Renesas portfolio distributed via Rutronik is on microcontrollers, processors, memory products and power semiconductors. Both companies are hopeful that this step will boost their market presence in Central Europe. This move also enables Rutronik to further harmonise its lines and optimise its offering as a provider of multi-vendor advice for system solutions and support for design-in technology. "Naturally, we are proud that, with Renesas, we have succeeded in bringing one of the world's leading manufacturers of semiconductors and at the same time the number 1 for microcontrollers on board as a partner", says Thomas Rudel, Director of Sales and Marketing, Rutronik . "This agreement brings us even closer towards achieving our declared objective of harmonising our offering in Europe with regard to all major and significant manufacturers. After all, our mission statement is to provide our customers throughout Europe with multi-vendor advice and appropriate solutions for every development. This is only possible by having a broad and at the same time deep product basis, which allows every opportunity to be exploited." "We were particularly impressed by Rutronik due to its solid growth, technical expertise, area-wide market penetration and highly motivated distribution and marketing team", explains Renesas. "Following the merger of Mitsubishi and Hitachi, we ended up working with 37 distributors. We have gradually combined these businesses into their current figure of 13. When selecting our partners, it was particularly important for us that they offer potential and the necessary resources to serve the broad sweep of our target markets - and naturally with a correspondingly high level of penetration. For the reasons outlined above, Rutronik satisfies these strategic prerequisites perfectly and also not least due to its vast customer potential." The agreement with Renesas sees the continuation of Rutronik recent string of successes as a broadline distributor. Since August, Rutronik has succeeded in supplementing its lines throughout Europe with a number of big names, including Epson Europe Electronics, Sharp and numerous manufacturers from the electromechanics sector, such as Molex and BMZ.