Bourns Honors Top European Distributors at Electronica

RIVERSIDE, Calif., December 22, 2008 Bourns, Inc., a leading manufacturer and supplier of advanced electronic components, today announced that it has awarded several distributors with the company’s 2008 European Distributor Awards. Bourns presented Avnet Time Europe with its Growth Partner Award, Digi-Key Corporation with the Catalogue Distributor Award, TTI Europe received the Circuit Protection Award and Arrow Europe was honored with its Demand Creation Award. The awards recognize Bourns’ top performing European distribution channel partners, as measured by European revenue growth for fiscal year 2008 and other key performance metrics.

Bourns’ European Distributor awards were formally presented during the recent 2008 Electronica Trade Show in Munich, Germany. Electronica provides an opportunity for electronic component suppliers, their worldwide distributors and their European representatives to meet, discuss and review prior and current year revenue and service performance. New growth strategies and opportunities to increase revenue by further improving service to customers are also discussed.

“Electronica provided us with a great opportunity to recognize our loyal channel partners in Europe,” said Gordon Bourns, CEO at Bourns. “We are extremely pleased with the growth Bourns has achieved in Europe and believe it is important to honor the accomplishments of our distribution partners. We look forward to many more years of successful collaboration.”

Avnet Time Europe, a highly focused electronic component distributor specializing in interconnect, passive, electromechanical and power supply products, was presented with Bourns’ 2008 Growth Partner Award for the company’s outstanding all around performance. Strong increases in demand discovery, new customers and support led Bourns to its decision to award Avnet Time Europe with this distinction. The award was presented to Michael Dannylow, president and Andreas Bregler, vice president of product marketing for Avnet Time Europe.

“We are honored to be presented with Bourns’ Growth Partner Award,” said Dannylow. “Bourns’ comprehensive line of products and exceptional support help us meet a wide range of customer application needs and requirements.”

Digi-Key Corporation, a broadline distributor of electronic components and accessories, was given Bourns’ Catalogue Distributor Award for the company’s exceptional support of new product introductions and driving new demand creation opportunities. The award was presented to Chris L. Beeson, vice president of supplier management and volume business and Jeff Shafer, vice president of interconnect, passive and electromechanical products for Digi-Key Corporation.

“We are thrilled to be named Bourns’ top catalogue distributor in Europe,” said Beeson. “We see Bourns as key to our growth strategy in Europe and are proud to be a long-standing partner.”

TTI Europe, a specialty distributor of passive, interconnect and discrete components, was presented with the Circuit Protection Award for excellent growth and special focus on all aspects of Bourns’ circuit protection products and solutions. The award was presented to Paul Andrews, chairman and CEO and Glyn Dennehy, senior vice president and general manager for TTI Europe.

“It is my privilege to accept this award from Bourns and we are honored to be recognized in this manner,” said Dennehy. “Bourns’ comprehensive line of circuit protection solutions benefits a broad range of applications, and we are proud to work with Bourns’ to help make significant contributions to the circuit protection industry in Europe.”

Arrow Europe, a leading provider of products, services and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions, was presented with the Demand Creation Award that recognizes the best performance for the design-in of Bourns’ products. Arrow’s team of leading technical specialists provided critical support and business growth in key areas for Bourns including distributor sales strategy, new demand discovery and new business creation.  The award was presented to Mike Buffham, vice president of asset, Giovanni Ramella, asset director and Bernt Hakall, PEMCO marketing and engineering director for Arrow Europe.

“We are excited to be named Bourns’ Demand Creation partner in 2008,” said Buffham. “Bourns’ is an exceptional supplier in the highly competitive electronic components market and we are grateful to have such a strong and knowledgeable partner to support our design-in strategies.”