Mouser Broke Ground on an Automatic Warehouse
13 September, 2022
The expansion plan has been brought forward by several years. VP Marketing of EMEA, Graham Maggs: “We do not expect market breakdown. There are too many active growth engines”
Mouser Electronics has started its expansion phase earlier than planned, and recently broke ground on a 416,000-square-foot, three-story building (green building above) that will expand its distribution center, located south of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Upon completion of the new construction, Mouser’s 78-acre global headquarters and massive distribution center will consist of almost 1.5 million square feet to accommodate Mouser’s vast inventory of 1 million unique SKUs (6.8 million components) from over 1,200 electronic component manufacturers.
The new building will feature a triple-mezzanine floorplan, advanced automation, and a skybridge connector to the existing distribution center building. It will be equipped with Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs). Essentially, they are giant vertical filing cabinets, complete with shelves and an automated extractor to bring the components to the employee’s workstation. This increases efficiency and floor space and can reduce an employee’s walking time by 45% or more. In spring 2022, Mouser completed installation of 120 such vertical lift modules.
The sixth phase of expansion
In addition, Mouser’s distribution center features multiple Ultipack and I-Pack machines – a sophisticated automated systems for sealing and labeling shipments that can process up to 14 orders per minute. The I-PACK packaging systems, for example, automatically produce the rightsized carton box for each delivery. Owned by Berkshire Hathaway through TTI, Mouser is a global distributor of electronic components, focused on developers, product prototyping and New Product Introduction (NPI) markets. The 3,500 employees company keeps in its warehouses approximately $1.2 billion worth of components. It is estimated that Mouser’s revenues are expected to reach $3 billion in 2022.
Graham Maggs, VP Marketing for EMEA, told Techtime that the new expansion project is the sixth phase of a strategic expansion plan drew up several years ago, but it was brought forward following rapid growth. Maggs: “Our Global sales grew by 40% in 2021, whereas the EMEA sales grew by 80%. We expect a 45% increase by the end of 2022. “In the last decade, Mouser has transformed from a company focused on the American market to the Global one.”
Customers will cancel double orders
“When I joined Mouser in 2010, most of its sales were in the Americas. As of today, only 43% of sales are in the Americas, and the rest is equally split between Asia and Europe.” Regarding the Global supply chain challenge, Maggs provides surprising insights: “We think that when the the supply chain improves and there will be larger availability of components, we will experience temporary and moderate decrease in orders. Currently, many customers issue duplicate orders, and when components reach to the market – some of these duplicate orders will be canceled.
“However, unlike similar past situations, this time we do not foresee a market breakdown, since there are too many active growth engines that are pushing the market. For eaxample Autonomous Vehicles, Military and Defense, Industry 4.0, Medical Equipment, and the IoT revolution in the consumer market. Our website has four million hits a day, most of them from RND teams and prototypes builders, so we can clearly see this trend, and thus expanding inventory.”
“The Israeli market is exceptional”
“Israel is responsible for approximately 9% of our sales in Europe. The Israeli market is very unique: It is small, specialized and always growing. In the last years we see here a 50% annual growth. Since it is a very technological oriented market, we provide technical support to our local customers through our partner MI Catalog company. We offer engineering support only in Israel and supply the Israeli orders directly from Texas, not through Europe.”
Mouser does not hold offices in Israel. The local activities are carried out through MI Catalog (Mouser Israel), a local Israeli company located in Ra’anana and owned by Moshe Elbas. According to Sales Manager Mark Nudelman, the company is both a Mouser’s exclusive representative and a business partner.
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