UK manufacturing surprised commentators last month recording its fastest rate of growth in almost 16 months, but there are continued worries that the UK market remains a challenge.
So it came as a surprise when in a series of interviews conducted by New Electronics distributors operating in the UK painted a picture of a market that, while not without its problems, remained remarkably robust.
According to the distributors we spoke too the number of companies designing with electronic components in the UK continues to grow and a key driver of that growth is the Internet of Things. According to one interviewee the sheer number and type of connected devices coming onto the market meant that sales of a diverse range of components such as MCUs, connectivity products, connectors and antennas were surging.
And while the UK market might not be as dynamic as some others in Europe, another distributor said that it was a market that being broadly diversified was providing a degree of stability in a difficult European market.
While the UK market may be dominated by smaller, highly specific niche markets that diversity is creating real opportunities for continued growth and according to one distributor there were opportunities for distributors in the UK to create additional growth by targeting customers who didn’t traditionally use distribution from markets such as LED lighting to the M2M wireless module market.
Innovation is certainly alive in the UK and a sample of the products being developed for use in this dynamic and diverse market can be found on the following pages.
