Rutronik Expands Franchise Activities

Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH has been a distribution partner for C&K throughout Europe since 2002. C&K and distributor Rutronik are now expanding their franchise agreement. In addition to the European market, Rutronik has now also been entrusted with the sales of C&K's range of products in Asia.

Because the cooperation of many years between Rutronik and C&K has demonstrated outstanding value, the two companies have decided to now expand their partnership to the Asian market. In doing so, they strive to achieve greater growth and an increase in new projects and design-in work. "Thanks to the globally consistent nature of Rutronik's operations, with standardized tools and processes, we – just like our customers – have both a central point of contact for our worldwide business and also complete transparency. We are now also in a position to follow customers' design-in work all the way to Asia," explained Serge Veld, Sales Director at C&K. "Our colleagues provide local assistance for the design-in activities of the customers in Asia from our branch offices there," added Martin Unsoeld, Senior Marketing Manager at Rutronik. "If the customer transfers their production to Asia, they also receive their tailored prices there." Deliveries for European customers continue to be handled by Rutronik's logistics center in Eisingen, while Asian customers benefit from short delivery times thanks to shipping via the logistics hub in Hong Kong.

The franchise agreement with Rutronik encompasses the entire C&K range of pushbuttons, rocker switches, slide switches and microswitches, products which are of particular interest to the automotive, medical and industrial markets.

As of August 1st 2015, Rutronik has also got the franchise for the product portfolio of International Rectifier. "Today we would like to inform you starting from August 1st 2015, that in addition to the already existing Distribution Network, our Distribution Partner, Rutronik is also franchised for the former IR product portfolio. We are pleased to announce that with this extension of our Distribution network we enlarge further support to our customers," explained Susanne Horn, Vice President Distribution & EMS Management EMEA at Infineon Technologies AG. „As Rutronik is recognized as a leading distributor for power components we are happy to be able to offer an even more competitive portfolio. This enables our customers to source all necessary products for their system solutions out of one hand.” said Thomas Rudel, CEO at Rutronik.

About Rutronik:
Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH is the third-largest distributor in Europe (source: Europartners Distribution Report 2014) and around the world is positioned in eleventh place (source: Global Purchasing, May 2015). The broadline distributor offers semiconductors, passive and electromechanical components in addition to boards, storage, displays & wireless products. The company's primary target markets are the automotive, medical, industrial, home appliance, energy and lighting industries. Rutronik bundles all products and services for specific embedded applications from the product areas of boards, storage, displays, wireless and peripherals under RUTRONIK EMBEDDED. RUTRONIK SMART brings together sensors, wireless components, micro-controllers, power management and safety solutions for devices within the Internet of Things (IoT). Expert technical support for product development and design-in, individual logistics and supply chain management solutions as well as comprehensive services complete its customer-oriented, forward-looking range of services. The company, established by Helmut Rudel in Ispringen, Germany in 1973, employs more than 1,400 staff worldwide and achieved Group sales of around EUR 740 million in the 2014 fiscal year.