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Old 24th Oct 2019, 9:43 am   #1
radioman
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Default CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

Have just noticed that Combined Precision Components have drastically reduced the list of components that they sell !
They sent me a large paper catalogue last year full of useful parts - most of these are now unavailable..
Link to example pages from their on-line catalogue :-https://www.easyflip.co.uk/CPC_Catalogue/?page=1454
So if you want a 555 timer or a once common op-amp like a 741/TL072/NE5534 etc than look elsewhere.
Same goes for logic IC's e.g. 4000 series or 74HC* types.


Andy
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 12:01 pm   #2
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

https://distributor.electronicspecif...-relationship/


Texas Instruments has given Avnet notice that it will end the companies’ distribution relationship by the end of next year.

It is thought that the agreement represents 10% of Avnet’s total revenues.

The termination affects Avnet Silica and Farnell in Europe.

The two companies have been channel partners for over 40 years.

Avnet said in a statement – “While Avnet and Texas Instruments (TI) have had a long-standing relationship, TI made changes to its distribution strategy and is moving toward selling directly to its customer base. As a result, Avnet and TI will be ending their distribution relationship by December 31, 2020. We respect TI’s decision and we will continue to work together through this transition.”

As the statement indicates, TI has moved to using broadline distributors for fulfillment while using its own resources to work directly with its customer base.
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 12:51 pm   #3
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

Oh dear, more bad news.
CPC was good for small quantities of common semiconductors and RS is only really interested in bulk quantities of 25 or 50 at a time.
Whilst I have a good selection of most common components there's always some I don't have.
If electronics is your hobby or you need specific components for a project or a repair, it's going to get much more difficult to find certain parts and I refuse to buy from ebay !

Andy
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Last edited by radioman; 24th Oct 2019 at 12:53 pm. Reason: typo
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 1:28 pm   #4
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Question Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

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Originally Posted by radioman View Post
. . . and I refuse to buy from eBay !

Andy
O.K.: but would you care to tell us why - without breaking the forum rules? If you think you might, you can always reply to me alone via a P.M.

Al.
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 2:58 pm   #5
Craig Sawyers
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

I think the problem is that in some cases semiconductors from eBay are fakes. Personally I've been bitten three times like that.

Hoping that does not contravene a rule....

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Old 24th Oct 2019, 3:56 pm   #6
radioman
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

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Originally Posted by Skywave View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by radioman View Post
. . . and I refuse to buy from eBay !

Andy
O.K.: but would you care to tell us why - without breaking the forum rules? If you think you might, you can always reply to me alone via a P.M.

Al.
Yes, as Craig says, it's the risk of buying fakes, plus they aren't always cheaper. (I do buy other more general items there though)
In the past, I have always bought my semiconductors from CPC/Farnell, RS Components or Rapid Electronics.

Andy
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 4:58 pm   #7
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

I noticed LM380 seemed to be in short supply at Farnell last month and wondered why such a popular IC had such low inventory.

"TI made changes to its distribution strategy and is moving toward selling directly to its customer base."

Does that means selling direct to public or only to manufacturers?

Andrew

Answered my own question....Yes it does

https://www.ti.com/store/ti/en/?utm_...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 5:05 pm   #8
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

Remembering that TI now includes NatSemi. So there went all the LM-prefix parts.

David
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 6:49 pm   #9
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

Just sorting through some of the CPC-packaged items i bought at an estate sale, its easy to forget what CPC did actually sell! I know I opened up our first account because I needed a LOPT for an Amstrad CPC464 monitor!
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Old 24th Oct 2019, 11:19 pm   #10
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

Clicking through the link to TI produced a list of TI's remaining European distributors, screen shot attached. It does not include Farnell or RS, but does include Digikey and Mouser. I am not familiar with the others.
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File Type: pdf TI european distributors 2019 .pdf (32.0 KB, 90 views)
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 8:35 am   #11
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

I have had an account with CPC for many years-admittedly I don't buy a lot from them (or anyone else) these days, as I have most components I'm likely to need, but knowing that they are much reducing the range of components they stock is still not good news, especially that there are now very few alternative suppliers, either on-line, or shops. Cricklewood electronics are another firm from whom I buy now and again. Let's hope they don't go the same way!
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 9:21 am   #12
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

Some of the Cricklewood Electronics ICs would seem to be NOS (parts which haven't been made for years). In fact on a couple of occasions they've said to me 'We have 2 in stock, we almost certainly won't be getting any more'.

I asusme they will carry on selling their stock. Whether they re-stock things (even common, currently made parts) I don't know.
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 9:29 am   #13
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

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Just sorting through some of the CPC-packaged items i bought at an estate sale, its easy to forget what CPC did actually sell! I know I opened up our first account because I needed a LOPT for an Amstrad CPC464 monitor!

These days I don't generally buy from CPC - either for my personal jobs or for the "day job". We have a One Call account at work which means we can either buy from Farnell or CPC. Occasionally the same part comes up from both - which seems a bit daft given they are owned by the same lot ! What I have noticed though is the CPC parts are usually cheaper but take a bit take longer to arrive than the Farnell stock coded bits . Given that time is usually of the essence I invariably go with the Farnell option.
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 10:35 am   #14
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

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https://distributor.electronicspecif...-relationship/

Texas Instruments has given Avnet notice that it will end the companies’ distribution relationship by the end of next year.

It is thought that the agreement represents 10% of Avnet’s total revenues.

The termination affects Avnet Silica and Farnell in Europe.
That explains a couple of things. A few designs I've worked on this year involve Nat Semi and TI parts, and I was puzzled as to why they were going end-of-line at Farnell, which I normally consider to be a one-stop-shop for all the parts needed for a design. So I've had to tell my customers to buy them from Mouser and Digi-key instead. I think it's a sad loss for Farnell and CPC, because it means that they won't be able to supply some of the key parts for a design, so they're likely to lose the business of the rest of the parts too. Shame.

Chris
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 10:51 am   #15
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

I agree.
We do the same for prototype and small batches.
If we are forced to go to Mouser for some parts, we will probably go to them for all the parts.

In my experience, Mouser offer a superb UK service and it's not unknown for parts shipped to the UK from the US to get here before RS and Farnell parts shipped internally in the UK.
On a level playing field I would always choose UK suppliers but in the modern world the disadvantage that can be absorbed with a UK policy has to be quite small
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 10:52 am   #16
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

I've never understood the relationship between Farnell and CPC. At first glance it looks as though Farnell are aimed more at 'the big boys', with a much wider range of items and, in general, large stocks of each one. As you say, they also offer industry standard next-day delivery and IME they are very good at meeting that. CPC, on the other hand, carry a more limited range, often with only a tiny number in stock (like the Maplin shops towards the end, and look what happened to them ...). They're clearly aimed more at the hobbyist who just wants one component.

The single thing which completely confounds this picture is the pricing. You'd expect the high-volume supplier to be cheaper and the small-order specialist to charge for all the fiddle and inefficiency that goes with that. But CPC are often cheaper than their high-volume partner, and not by a small amount.

As an immediate example I happen, in the next few days, to need some Welwyn W22 470R vitreous enamel resistors. My need is for four, but I'll buy ten if that gets me a useful price break. Farnell want £1.30 for one resistor and the price drops by a pleasing amount to £0.79 each for ten off (all prices plus VAT). They have 7,572 in stock. But CPC will sell me just one for £0.52 - 40% of the price that Farnell want ! - and that drops to £0.48 (still 60% of Farnell's) if I take ten. But they 'only' have 73 in stock.

Actually 73 is a large stock for CPC. A couple of weeks ago I wanted some W22 180Rs. I ordered twelve. But they only had six (!) in stock. They delivered those straight away and sent the remaining six last week in an additional delivery for which they covered the cost. I've just checked and their current stock of these is four. Yes. Four. Strangest of all is that while they were faffing about trying to get twelve resistors to me their stablemate has a current stock of 730.

Honestly, that's no way to run a chip shop.

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 11:57 am   #17
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

before Farnell bought them out in the 90's, they did all sorts of white goods spares, and repair kits/parts for TVs VCRs etc. of late they seem to be concentrating on hawking shiny tat, although they probably sell a lot more shiny tat then IC's nowadays...
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 5:35 pm   #18
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

I suppose it doesn't make any sense for Avnet's CPC and Farnell subsidiaries to have a huge overlap. I think...that Farnell's model is for parts to be dearer but with free next day delivery built in, because that suits most businesses. It seems that CPC's royal mail despatch which sometimes takes a week to get to me here is geared at people who shop on price alone with delivery time taking a back seat. A few months back CPC introduced minimum order values (8 quid I think?). Farnell did too, but soon reverted to free delivery.
CPC are bound to strip out slow or dormant lines, they're a business, not a service! These days the two dont always co-exist
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 7:17 pm   #19
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

Unless it's changed very recently, CPC will take orders of less that £8 but will charge extra for postage. Over £8 it's 'free.'
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 7:31 pm   #20
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Default Re: CPC has slashed its stocklist of IC's

From a business perspective, I can understand a company having more than one customer-facing presence (and differential pricing) even though the backstream distribution is the same. Equally, I can understand a distie culling the 'slow-moving, low-value' lines [a decade ago a friend was writing business-analytic software to identify the low-turnover/low-profit corners of a client's product-portfolio].

Stocking 40-year-old ICs that maybe only sell 10 or so a year is crazy for a mainstream distie - the capital tied-up in the stock can't always be depreciated as the parts-that-were-once-high-valued become obsolete. The smart distie will seek to offload their legacy-parts stock - which is where hobbyist-parts-suppliers like Cricklewood come into play - they buy-up the stuff for pennies-on-the-pound and then sell them to us hobbyists (usually minus any kind of parts-traceability guarantee).

Equally - I'm reminded of mainstream suppliers like RS that tried to develop a 'hobbyist/amateur' parallel-business - at rather higher prices than the same kit could be bought from RS.... In the case of RS it was "Doram" - which emerged in the 70s but faded away a decade later when they got to see just how much hassle it was to have to deal with hobbyists who bought 17/6d worth of components and paid with a postal-order.

RS tried again a few years later with "Electromail" which equally failed to set the world on fire.
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