Rutronik celebrates 50th anniversary

In the 1970s, colour television became increasingly popular in Germany, especially because of the 1972 Olympic Games and the Football World Cup in 1974. Exactly in the period between these two major sporting events, in 1973, Helmut Rudel founded Rutronik, which specialised in the distribution of passive components. Rutronik is now one of Europe's largest electronics distribution companies and generated sales of €1.28 billion in 2022. Worldwide, the family-owned company now employs more than 1,900 people in over 80 offices, as well as logistics centres in Europe, Austin (Texas), Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong. "We are happy and proud to celebrate our 50th anniversary in the electronics industry this year," said Thomas Rudel, CEO and chairman of the board at Rutronik. "From a small family business that I founded in a double garage in Ispringen in the early 1970s with great support of my wife, we have become a leading distribution company for electronic components within 50 years," added Helmut Rudel, Founder and President of Rutronik.

Providing customers with the best possible support

More than 40,000 customers benefit from the diverse product portfolio of leading manufacturers, technical support, individual logistics solutions, and in-house research and development (R&D). Rutronik has established design centres in Singapore and Lithuania specifically for its own R&D activities. With Rutronik System Solutions, the distributor is transforming itself into a system provider with unique, partly patented system solutions consisting of hardware and software to shape fast-moving innovation cycles in the industrial environment. With proofs-of-concept, Rutronik System Solutions significantly accelerates the pre-development phases of its customers to shorten the time-to-market of their new applications.

Continuous international growth with strong roots in the European market

"This year we are celebrating important corporate milestones around our growing product portfolio with leading suppliers and our global expansion with subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, and the USA. We are continuously expanding the latter as part of our regionalisation strategy. The aim is to be as close as possible to our customers so that we can provide them with the best possible advice," Thomas Rudel continued. "And we would also like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to our customers, suppliers, partners and, above all, our employees, who have always driven Rutronik forward so that we will continue to write our success story together in the years to come."