Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH and Omron Electronic Components Europe BV today announced the extension of their franchise agreement to cover the UK and Ireland with immediate
effect. Rutronik and Omron have a relationship dating back to 1998, currently covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe. Under the new agreement, Rutronik will sell and support the comprehensive Omron range of connector, switch and relay components, in the UK and Ireland.
Rutronik has a team of over 40 staff in this region, including Field Application Engineers, Product Specialists and Business Development Managers who provide local support and advice to its customers.

"The UK is a highly competitive market with many active distributors. However, Rutronik does not shy away from competition – on the contrary. This way, our additional services become important to the customer. True to our motto "More than Distribution", we offer our customers, apart from a wide product portfolio, technical support through field application engineers, product marketing and business development managers as well as logistics modules, that can be combined freely and implemented individually according to customer requirements within a minimum amount of time,” Jörg Ciper, Marketing Director Electromechanical Components at Rutronik explains. "Omron is an important partner to Rutronik, distinguished by a high level of supply reliability and innovative products."

"We are delighted with this opportunity to expand our successful relationship with Rutronik to include the UK and Ireland. I believe our success together in Central Europe will be replicated in this new region,” adds Alex Grout, European Distribution Manager Omron. " I have been impressed by both the technical knowledge and business development capabilities of the Rutronik team of UK based product managers and business development managers. They will give customers local design-in support for Omron products backed up by the stockholding, and marketing expertise from Rutronik’s Headquarters."

Rutronik is pleased to be able to offer its customers in the UK a much larger selection of electromechanical components following this extended partnership with Omron Components Europe. Omron is Rutronik's key partner for connectors, switches and relays. Omron components are known globally for their high quality, and are widely used in telecommunications, building automation, home appliances, energy control and industrial control and other applications. The Omron micro switch ranges in particular offer exceptionally small size as well as a broad variety of lever and termination options. Rutronik believes that the recently added Omron range of “smart click” connectors for industrial applications enabling fast interchangability will be of interest to the UK market.

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About Rutronik (www.rutronik.com)
Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH is one of Europe's leading broadline distributors for semiconductors, passive and electromechanical components in addition to wireless products, displays as well as embedded boards.
To round off the product portfolio Rutronik also offers storage technologies from its subsidiary company Discomp. The markets that the company primarily targets include the automotive, telecommunications, consumer goods and industrial electronics industries. Wide-ranging services, competent transfers of expertise in the areas of product development and design, as well as logistics and supply chain management solutions round off its customer and future-orientated range of goods and services. The company, established by Helmut Rudel in Ispringen/Germany in 1973, employs about 1,150 staff throughout Europe and achieved sales of EUR 600 million in fiscal year 2008.