There is nothing like the departure of the chief executive of your main rival, after a period of poor performance, to concentrate minds. In the past, Electrocomponents says, it has used the smaller Premier Farnell, where said chief executive Laurence Bain left in the summer, as a benchmark too much, but both companies are beset with the same problems.
So his counterpart at Electro, Lindsley Ruth, has instituted a £25 million cost-saving programme, which will include ditching the new IT platform ordered 18 months ago, and taken an axe to the Asia-Pacific business, the most obvious underperformer.
Both companies distribute electronic components to designers and manufacturers. This means they are exposed to what work is going on in manufacturing and on designing new products. They