Digi-Key is the fourth largest electronic component distributor in North America and a broad-line distributor of board level components. It ranks as the fifth largest electronic component distributor in the world. Founded in 1972 by Ronald Stordahl, its name is a reference to the "Digi-Keyer Kit", a digital electronic keyer kit that he developed and marketed to amateur radio enthusiasts. He continues to privately own the company.
History
Mark Larson, who joined Digi-Key in 1976 as its general manager, became president in 1985. He has led the company from its initial focus on the hobbyist market to the expanded market it serves today. In 2015 Larson announced he would be stepping down from his role within the company and transition to a board position. On June 1, 2015 Dave Doherty, who served as the Executive Vice President of Operations at Digi-Key, transitioned to Larson's position as President and Chief Operating Officer. In 1996, Digi-Key introduced its website that offers complete online commerce capabilities along with access to product inventory. Digi-Key currently hosts 82 websites in twelve supported languages. Digi-Key continued to grow following the recession in 2008. In six years, Digi-Key moved from 16th largest to fifth largest among the more than 300 electronic component distributors in North America. According to their website, in 2007 EE Times conducted a survey in which engineers rated Digi-Key "#1 for Overall Performance for the 16th Consecutive Year". Digi-Key is located in a single, centralized location in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Its facility measures and houses over 3,400 employees. In 2017 the company began work on a 1 million square foot expansion to their Thief River Falls facility at an expected cost of $200 million to $300 million. The expansion was helped by government incentives and tax exemptions and is expected to add another 1,000 jobs at Digi-Key. Digi-Key's product distribution center stocks over 1.7 million products from over 750 manufacturers and ships to 170 countries worldwide. The company can also provide access to more than 8 million products from their online catalog. On December 8, 2015, Digi-Key announced that they had shipped their 50,000,000th package and recognized this as an important company milestone. In celebration, they have been highlighting key customers from different worldwide regions by granting them with a "Bronze Package" award. Digi-Key serves design engineers and the prototyping market, as well as an expanding role in supplying production quantities for OEMs and contract manufacturers.
