TDK
»1 + 1 really is more than 2!«
Fortsetzung des Artikels von Teil 2
Serious supply chain in the passive component
There have been serious tensions in the passive component supply chain for a good two years now. How are you responding to this development? To what extent is TDK investing to expand production capacity?
Let me first say that this situation arose partly because of a phase of market consolidation, during which various companies made decisions about their future product strategy. The consequences of these decisions have created a situation in which far from all customers‘ demands can be satisfied, because market demand has also increased in a number of areas due to the spread of electrification on a broad front. In response, we have substantially increased our capacity in recent years and will continue to do so in the future. Over the next three years, TDK will invest a total of more than 3.7 billion euros, about a third of which will be channeled into passive components.
The acquisition of Epcos was intended to improve TDK‘s sales channels to Europe. Do you think that has worked according to plan?
The plan has definitely been a success. The acquisition ten years ago means that, today, customers around the globe have access to a one-stop supplier with a broad portfolio of technology-leading products that offer good value for money and bear the TDK quality seal. Worldwide, we today provide shared product platforms for which customers have only a single point of access to TDK.
One special feature of Epcos used to be the large number of internal sales staff. Proportionally, distributors played a comparatively small part. Has that changed noticeably in the ten years since the takeover?
It wasn‘t that bad even in the days before the acquisition! Having said that, distributors today handle 22 to 23 percent of TDK‘s components business, which is far more. That puts us within our target corridor of around 25 percent. With the kind of broad product spectrum on offer from TDK today, you obviously can‘t reach everyone via direct channels. Above all, distributors enable us to also reach lots of small, innovative engineering firms. The bottom line is that we see distributors as ideal partners to provide greater accessibility and better services to our small and mid-sized customers in particular.
- »1 + 1 really is more than 2!«
- New trends in the industry
- Serious supply chain in the passive component
