Arrow Electronics: Biggest player you've never heard of
Denver Business Journal - by Greg Avery Denver Business Journal
Friday, March 28, 2008
Kathleen Lavine | Business Journal
Mike Long is COO and Colorado president of Arrow Electronics.
Arrow Electronics Inc. is one of the biggest players in global electronics -- but the company also is easy to miss.
It's located in two low-key office buildings in sparsely developed prairie on the southeast side of Centennial. Aside from the international flags on display, there's little about the business' nondescript warren of shoulder-high cubicles suggesting Arrow's global reach.
Yet, if Arrow's headquarters were here instead of Melville, N.Y., its $11 billion in locally managed sales would rank it as the metro area's second-largest public company by 2007 revenue, behind Qwest Communications International Inc. and just ahead of Echo­Star
Corp.
Arrow ranks as Long Island, N.Y.'s largest public company by sales.
The Centennial div­ision manages a components supply operation that generates more than two-thirds of Arrow's $16 billion in annual worldwide sales, and directs the flow of computer processors, semiconductors, antennas and other parts across the globe.
Yet, to say Arrow (NYSE: ARW) lacks local notice would be an understatement.
Mike Long, the Arrow executive who co-founded and has run the Colorado components business, said area chambers of commerce weren't sure which community its offices officially belong to -- but it is Centennial. And when he joined a regional chapter of a networking group for corporate presidents, Arrow was unknown to the group until it checked out his credentials.
"I've got to admit, it has sort of been my way over the years," Long said. "I've been more into growing and becoming a strong company than I have been of making news."
That focus has paid off for him and the business.
On March 3, Arrow appointed Long to be chief operating officer for the 12,000employee company, gave him a seat on its board and resurrected a dormant companywide president's position for him. And he plans to fulfill those roles in Colorado.
John Brackney, president of the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, got to know Arrow when it joined the chamber. Unlike most members, Arrow essentially joined the chamber to offer its service as a corporate citizen, he said. The company's lack of ego and flash is refreshing, he said.

"It's a decent company that does business around the world and that brings a lot of good jobs to Colorado, but they certainly don't brag about it," Brackney said. "Maybe that's how business should be."
Long maintains offices in Melville as well as Centennial, frequently traveling east. The company does business almost everywhere in the industrialized world, so travel is a necessity for many at Arrow.
"If you work here, you get to know Denver International Airport pretty well," said John
Hourigan, Arrow's director of external communications.
Long, 49, came to Arrow in 1991 when it bought rival Schweber Electronics, where Long worked at the time. He was tapped to help start Arrow's division managing international components distribution.
He scouted sites in Indianapolis and Denver.
Denver's airport and educated work force made it attractive, Long said, and the site decision was made after it became clear Arrow's employees preferred the idea of moving to Colorado.
Arrow opened a 90-employee office and warehouse off Interstate 70 and Chambers Road
17 years ago and has grown on the strength of the business it developed here. It moved to
Centennial in 2000, and today it employs nearly 700 people there, about the same as
Arrow has in Melville.
"From a business point of view, this has been a good place to find people and keep people on the payroll," Long said.
The Centennial offices process and track close to 2 million transactions for 140,000 global customers daily.
That means each deal is only a few thousand dollars in value, typically, but they're collectively crucial to the process of building the world's mobile phones, laptop computers and technology networks.
It's a logistics-heavy business that requires storing $1.6 billion worth of tiny parts in warehouses worldwide. It also requires anticipating demand, sometimes better than its customers can predict themselves, Hourigan said.
Recent acquisitions have earned Arrow more notice lately in industry news.
The company has bought smaller, specialized distribution companies in France, India,
China and Denver. Arrow bought Denver military parts supplier ACI Electronics for an undisclosed amount on Feb. 10.