The Digi-Key Story

For those unfamiliar, Digi-Key is headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minnesota - a town of just over 8,500 people, in the northwest corner of Minnesota. Just a little over an hour south of the Canadian border, Thief River Falls is not near major airports or a large concentration of laborers.

In 1972 Dr Ronald Stordahl started selling the ‘Digi-Keyer’ – a kit for ham radio operators that helped transmit Morse code. That led to selling components – first to electronic hobbyists, and then to the commercial market.

Digi-Key has continued to add products to its inventory, and provides those products to customers wherever they are, within 24 hours domestically and 48-60 hours globally. Digi-Key ships more than 15,000 packages per day from our corporate headquarters in Thief River Falls.

We’ve also remained loyal to our hometown of Thief River Falls. While it may have been easier to move our headquarters to a larger city with access to a larger workforce, Digi-Key has continued to invest in the community.

Currently the largest construction project in the United States, the new Digi-Key Product Distribution Center (PDC) is a more than $400 million investment and more than 200,000 square meters. The PDC is expected to be fully operational in the summer of 2021, and it will feature more than 25 miles of automated conveyor belts and 55 dock doors. Our workforce will also expand significantly, as we expect to hire more than 1,000 people over the next ten years.

Today, Digi-Key offers more than ten million products globally, with more than 2.2 million in stock and available for immediate shipment, from over 800 quality name-brand manufacturers.

With offices in the United States, Tel Aviv, Munich, Shanghai and other key locations, we are the 4^th largest among the more than 300 electronic distributors in North America, and the 6^th largest worldwide. Digi-Key’s customer-centered business philosophy continues to drive the company’s rapid growth and success.