Avnet, Inc. announced results for its third quarter ending 2 April, 2022, reporting another strong quarter of sales and operating margin growth. These results were once again bolstered by a strong performance from the element14 business with sales increasing 18.4% YoY to $469 million. element14’s operating margin grew to 14.9% in Q3, which reflects the strength of its global performance.
This is the result of the company’s continued investments in expanding the scope of its global inventory portfolio, and further developments of its e-commerce capabilities. The business planned to add 250,000 new SKUs through FY22 and has so far delivered 63% of that total, with the existing global portfolio now approaching one million products. Additional investments in e-Commerce capabilities, new product introductions and continued support for the online engineering community were also key drivers of growth.
In e-Commerce, element14 continues to strengthen its offering, with more than 72% of transactional orders placed online through the quarter, which represents element14’s historically best quarter with 56% of element14 sales taking place online. This marks the company’s sixth consecutive quarter of online sales growth.
Weidi Zhu, Business President, element14, said: “We are pleased with these latest results which, following equally impressive results in Q2, is especially encouraging as we continue to demonstrate strong performance in FY22 to date.
“Online continues to be a major focus area for our business and play a key role in both our growth and improved customer offering, as we commit to delivering a vastly enhanced web experience. The result of this is that we now see over 70% of our sales and orders being placed through e-Commerce avenues, while we continue to differentiate our product offering through launching new supplier lines and expanding in core and new segments.”
element14’s expansive inventory remains a key priority for the Avnet group and was a critical driver of Avnet’s adjusted operating margin reaching 4.7% in the quarter, as well as Avnet’s gross margin rising from 12.2% to 12.5%.
In APAC, growth in sectors including automotive, medical device and consumer electronic, as well as electronics manufacturing services and original equipment manufacturers, continued to drive strong performance.
Zhu, commented: “Our global demand indicators remain strong. And while challenges remain in terms of backorder fulfilment, our ongoing success is a direct result of the resilience and commitment our employees have demonstrated; our customers who remain a delight to service; and our suppliers who have remained steadfast and responsive as we collectively look to deliver further successful operating results throughout the calendar year ahead and beyond.”