Rectron Appointed by Acer
2011 started with the appointment of Rectron by Acer as a distributor for notebooks, projectors, monitors and personal computers. This broadens Rectron’s portfolio of products and provides some of the best of breed products available. Rectron has again started a year on an excellent note and 2011 will prove to be one of the best years yet.

Rectron Appointed as Microsoft FPP
2010 saw Microsoft appoint Rectron as an official Fully Packaged Product (FPP) Distributor, complementing its OEM status, and completing Rectron’s Microsoft offering. FPP differs from OEM and DSP software in that it is a full-fledged retail offering, containing both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Windows 7 and Office 2010, with certain limitations, and is not limited to System Integrators or Builders, and can be sold like any other retail software. “Through the appointment of Rectron as one of the three FPP distributors, Microsoft also piggy‑backs off the wide variety and number of customers that Rectron reaches on a monthly basis.”

Parlotones Partnership, Rectron is Lean and Mean
The Parlotones – Multi-award winners and South Africa’s biggest name in music, partnered with Rectron and GIGABYTE in launching a Parlotones branded GIGABYTE notebook. Never before has something like this been done with such success. The Parlotones borrowed their likeness as well as hit music to the project, and will also feature GIGABYTE in an upcoming music video as well as at upcoming concerts and events. Rectron has long admired the Parlotones music, dynamism and style and along with Rectron, have been very successful. The notebooks will be based in Intel’s CULV platform providing an excellent balance of power, performance and usability. Rectron’s financial results show that the company remains lean-and-mean, ready to weather the storm, with gross profit up by 3,6 percent, and net profit before tax up by five percent year-on-year for South African operations.

Rectron Moves, Rectron gets Samsung, Epson and Tomtom Arrive
In the last week of July 2008, Rectron completed the second phase of its move back to Rectron house, its historical and original premises in 15th Road, Midrand. It formed part of a carefully planned move and massive renovation project, taking over eight months and costing more than R 30 Million. The result is the creation of a new and formidable infrastructure and future-oriented foundation for Rectron’s efforts to be leaner and meaner than ever before. Rectron was also appointed by Samsung in 2008, allowing Rectron to sell their mono laser, colour laser and mono/colour MFP printer range, LCD monitors and notebook ranges to its customers. 2008 also saw the appointment by Epson of Rectron as a distributor for their wide range of printing and imaging products including ink based printers, dot-matrix printers, scanners, MFP’s, consumables and projectors. Dutch-based PND organisation, TomTom appointed Rectron as an exclusive distributor in South Africa, bouncing back into the local market. TomTom will compliment other brands within Rectron’s stable of products and is a best-of-breed product itself.

Rectron Revamps for Success
The year saw Rectron looking at a revamp and re-evaluation of its needs and of the market as a whole and a new path was chosen to carry Rectron to the next phase of its development with the appointment of a new “Management Succession” team, and the planning to move back to their historical and original headquarters while giving it a major overhaul, with a planned R 30 Million revamp, and a re-imagining of how to effectively use the space available. The building will be revamped and grown from 6000sqm to 12000sqm, and will include a state-of-the-art automated storage and management system. This will set the platform for Rectron and its future with a solid foundation to be leaner and meaner.

Expansion to Port Elizabeth, The arrival of Seagate
During 2006, Rectron Port Elizabeth moved into a new building, where Rectron had earlier established a branch office using a converted house as their initial premises. Rectron PE expressed confidence at that time in its ability to improve and increase customer service levels and interactions. The PE branch is smaller than many of the other Rectron branches in the group, yet is capable of providing the special attention that is needed to foster lasting relationships with its customers. Also in 2006, Seagate and Rectron entered into a distribution agreement and hosted an initial joint event in October of 2006, bringing the reseller channel up to speed with Seagate’s new product offering in both the retail and the system builder space.

The new 20 000sq m Rectron building in Midrand
2005 marked the beginning of Rectron’s dominance in the market as the leading computer component distributor. “It might sound like a cliché, but our new building is going to take Rectron to the next level from a number of perspectives, including logistical, technical support, training and marketing services,” commented CEO Mark Lu at that time. “We have designed the building in a bid to improve a number of our business processes – with our clients’ needs in mind. For example, we have streamlined the PC assembly line to improve the time from order to delivery for individually specified machines.” Efforts to continually improve the speed of this process remain in the forefront of the minds of Rectron senior management.

Durban’s new Building; Microsoft Platinum OEM
2004 marked a huge leap for Rectron with the company soaring and brands increasing.
Rectron’s Durban premises could not support the growth in that region of the country and a move into a larger, better configured building took place. At that time, Janice Bassa, regional manager of Rectron Durban stated, “We believe that the space that you work in influences the way that you think and the work that you produce.” Rectron also announced its new status as a Microsoft Platinum OEM. The announcement is a direct result of Rectron's agreement with Microsoft SA to license Microsoft products for distribution with fully assembled Rectron PCs. It also follows the distributor's OEM status appointment last year for its range of Rectron-branded notebooks.

Number One Distributor in South Africa, Appointed Seagate “Premier Service Partner
Rectron continued to grow at a phenomenal rate during this year, and achieved annual sales of over R 1,2 billion. Rectron became the number one distributor in Southern Africa during 2003, establishing a partnership with AOpen which saw Rectron distributing AOpen products in South Africa as well as the rest of Africa. Rectron has also been appointed a "Premier Service" partner by hard drive vendor Seagate Technology. The appointment reflects Rectron's growing domination of the drive market, where Rectron will now support Seagate and Maxtor brands. Rectron continued to expand its portfolio of vendors and partners and was appointed as an Intel Mobile VAD for White Box Notebooks and Mobile Processors and as a Microsoft OEM partner allowing Rectron to distribute Microsoft OEM software and to complement its DSP business.

Rectron gain Microsoft DSP, Bloemfontein & Port Elizabeth open, Intel Server VAD
Changes to the computer components industry distribution dynamic saw Rectron sign an agreement to distribute Microsoft DSP Products to its customers. The agreement sees Rectron gain access to Microsoft’s main software product lines. Rectron also gained a number of new partnerships that have since run their course and the companies have parted ways. New branches were opened in Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth to further expand Rectron’s reach and footprint. 2002 also saw Rectron delisting from the JSE during the course of the year. Rectron also opened its Server Division and received Intel Server Value Added Distributor status to push and grow Intel Server in the SME space offering Intel “White Box” Server and Networking products.

The growth of Rectron, Rectron gains Intel Distribution and Leadtek
Rectron followed the now familiar growth pattern once again, forcing an increase in the size of its premises, a task made easier this time as the land and buildings were owned by Rectron. The increase to 6 000 sq. ms was highly significant. This year also marked Rectron’s partnership with a number of new vendors and the addition of a key major brand, Intel, which was a significant addition to the product portfolio and included the Desktop and Server product ranges. This year also saw Rectron gain Maxtor and Handspring into their portfolio. Rectron’s growing stature in the distribution market was reflected in its results. Described as a sparkling year, despite enormous pressure from a declining market and negative sentiment in certain quarters, Rectron again posted significant growth rates and profits. In November, the distribution market was rocked by the closure of Siltek Distribution Dynamics. The resultant shockwaves were felt for some time while vendors were still looking for new channels into the market. Rectron also gained Leadtek, an nVidia Specialist Graphics Card house that caters for both the Desktop and Workstation markets for Gaming and Professional Graphics users.

2nd Year as a public company, Rectron gains CPU partner, Rectron Memory Plant
June marked Rectron’s second year as a public company. Once again the results were impressive as Rectron showed significant profits, posting more than 50% growth. However, once again, the market’s myopic perception of Rectron was reflected in a sluggish share price well below its true value, according to market experts. This year also saw Rectron sign on with AMD to distribute its x86 Processor Line to its customer base. While not as powerful as Intel, it offers a second option to customers looking for cost effective computing solutions. Rectron also became the first local company to open its own memory plant, at a cost of R 10 Million, and allows Rectron to product 1000 Memory Modules per day, with the capacity to produce 5 times that amount. The plant was co-sponsored by Taiwanese memory firm TwinMOS.

Rectron moves to purpose built facility, Launch of the globalization program
In March, amid much fanfare, the company moved into its own purpose built warehouse and office complex in Midrand. This represented a 300% increase in space over the previous building’s area, but due to the 18-month development period, plans were already in place to extend the warehouse facility. In June of that year, Rectron posted its trading results – the first as a listed company - which were again spectacular. Turnover was R 311 million, an increase of 61%. This year also saw Rectron launch its globalization program, setting up operating centres in Holland, Australia and the UK. This program had many positive benefits for Rectron, although the Dutch branch became a casualty of the global economic downturn, two years later, and the UK operation was also closed due to growing pressures globally a few years later.

Main board of the JSE Securities Exchange
Strong upward growth meant that office and warehouse space was once again in short supply as the staff complement grew and stocks increased. In November of that year, Rectron was listed on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (now the JSE Securities Exchange). Of all the IT companies that listed around that time, Rectron was acknowledged as being one of the strongest. A branch in Durban was operned.

Rectron grows and moves, Kyalami Business Park, Rectron Cape Town opens.
Rectron’s growth and success proved to have no boundaries and in 1997, the company again expanded, prompting a much need move to a larger 1200sq. m premises based in Kyalami Business Park. The trading year exceeded expectations and was again spectacular with a growth in turnover of more than 50% on year. 1997 also saw Rectron expand to the Western Cape and the opening of the Cape Town branch to service the Northern, Eastern & Western regions. This further expanded the reach and footprint of Rectron and its much sought after products, making it easier for consumers in the region to obtain these products.

Great diversity, Rectron gets GIGABYTE Distribution
1996 saw Rectron appointed as a Distributor for GIGABYTE, initially starting off with Motherboards and Graphics Cards. This was the start of an extremely successful partnership that has grown from strength to strength and has yielded one of the must successful business partnerships in Rectron’s history. Success as a niche market distributor saw the company growing out of its premises, necessitating a move to more spacious offices and warehouse in Woodmead. During its first trading year, the fledgling company posted a turnover of R75 million and requests from the dealer/reseller community flooded in for a broader product range with far greater diversity.

The discovery of Rectron
Rectron Holdings was established in May 1995, by Founder and CEO Mark Lu, with a working capital of just R 1,5 million and four staff members. The company operated out of a small 260 sq. m warehouse in Kramerville. This was the beginning of the success story that is Rectron.