As Charcroft Electronics director Debbie Rowland explains, every industry, corporate or personal anniversary marks a major milestone worthy of celebration.
When an anniversary is measured in decades, rather than a few years, that milestone marks high levels of experience and longevity, which is particularly relevant when the focus is specialist rather than broadline.
For Electronics Sourcing, the focus for the last 20 years has been on supporting procurement professionals, while for Charcroft, the focus for the last 50 years has been on high-reliability and critical components.
Charcroft Electronics director, Debbie Rowland, said: “My own personal anniversary is that I have spent over 30 years at Charcroft. I started as a junior office clerk as part of a team of five people and the company achieved a turnover of under £1 million. Today, I am part of a team of 80 internal and field-based specialists in the UK and the turnover is now around 200 times higher. On the way, I have been the sales manager, followed by being made a director. I was also a temporary Roman goddess to support our team raising funds for local charities in Wales.
“I have seen a lot of changes in the industry over the last 30 years. Certainly, the number of private independent distributors has been reduced dramatically, as these have been acquired to become part of worldwide broadline distribution networks. Charcroft has remained independent and is still privately owned. So, we retain the flexibility to create individual solutions quickly for our customers, rather than being one small cog in a global network which must stay within a single framework.
“When I first joined the industry I worked with customers whose buyers and engineers were also new to the market. These same people are now directors and leading names, and we have developed a shared understanding of how to support and grow companies within this industry.”
So, while much has changed, longevity has allowed Charcroft to remain focussed on key areas of service which are essential for sectors in which product lifetimes are measured in decades.
This supports effective obsolescence management, so that any risks are highlighted to the customer when the order is first quoted, and an alternative component is identified quickly if a component is withdrawn later by the manufacturer. Charcroft can also use an archived library of legacy datasheets and customise the replacement component to fit a board which was developed decades ago and is still in use today.
Whilst anniversaries look to the past, it is vital to also look to the future.
This is why Charcroft has made a number of acquisitions, including the recent acquisition of Sensor Techniques. These acquisitions will continue if there is a possibility that the closure of a company could impact customers by taking specialist components off the market.
Debbie concluded: “The last 30 years have been an incredible experience for me, and I will continue to work with customers to share the benefit of partnering with an independent specialist, rather than working with one cog in a global network.
