John Magee President, Sales and Operations and Christopher DePaulo, VP of Sales at independent distributor Freedom USA brief EMSNOW about the impact of this latest electronics super-cycle on their customers. Even if a customer is not directly building data centers at the hyperscaler level, the memory shortages are impacting everyone. Not only extended lead times, but component manufacturers are raising prices substantially, which means companies are proactively jumping on any allocation they can get.
The discussion turns to the way their customers are adapting to the price increases and shortages. For some products, it means a redesign to use a different component to improve the margins. Small to medium sized customers, which are Freedom’s core customers, may not be getting the notifications directly from the component manufacturers; they are reaching out to Freedom USA for support. As an independent, John argues, they have more flexibility than the larger distributors and can offer flexibility and cash flow relief that a smaller company might need in times of supply chain disruption.
