Frank Wolinski, regional vice president of channel sales at STMicroelectronics, attended the opening ceremony of the expanded distribution and operations centre in Wisbech.
The £2million investment expanded the original site into an adjoining building, increasing the floor area from 43,000 sq ft to 70,000 sq ft and expanding inventory storage space by 40%.
“Anglia achieved a compound annual growth rate of 25% over the last two years despite the challenges in the economy and in the tech industry,” said CEO Steve Rawlins. Explaining the distributor’s “resilience in one of the most difficult markets any of us have experienced” he believed it is because Anglia holds one of the highest inventory levels relative to the size of the business in the industry and that the company was bold in investing further.
“As a privately owned company, we can continue this strategy as we grow. We have scaled up our distribution centre facility to allow us to continue to increase our inventory levels as our business expands,” he said.
ST has worked with Anglia for nearly 25 years. Frank Wolinski said, “Anglia has been our Demand Creation Distributor of the Year for two years running. Their strong team work exceptionally hard to develop opportunities with customers. The expanded facility in Wisbech means that they can continue to hold the levels of inventory needed to support customers once these projects go into production. I wish Anglia every success in their continued growth and look forward to playing a central part in their plans.”
Anglia is also recruiting more than 20 additional members of staff. Rawlins said half of today’s workforce have been with the business five years or more and nearly 25% have been with the company for over 20 years. Rawlins joined the field sales team in 1976, progressed to sales director, managing director and CEO in 2006, before acquiring the company from president and majority shareholder Bill Ingram in 2011 to create the UK’s largest privately owned distributor.
As part of the staff recruitment and retention drive, the company has introduced benefits such as loyalty bonuses, a comprehensive health plan, company life insurance, additional flexible leave for important family events and the opportunity for flexible salary access. It has also increased annual leave to 27 days (pro-rata for part time staff) and has introduced a longer weekend, finishing at 1pm instead of 5pm on Fridays, without affecting salaries.
