Farnell

Farnell is the European, Middle East, African and Japanese brand of a distribution group that also runs Newark in the Americas and element14 across Asia Pacific. Its UK site is operated by Premier Farnell UK Limited, registered in England and Wales, with a registered office at 150 Armley Road in Leeds. The homepage states more than one million products in stock, an average of 4,000 or more additions each month, and authorised distribution for over 2,000 suppliers.

Product families run from connectors, passives and semiconductors to automation, power supplies, RF and wireless, and development boards. Premier Farnell was acquired in 2016 by Avnet Bidco Limited, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Avnet, Inc., and the UK footer calls Farnell an Avnet company, so it should be read as part of a larger group.

• Million-product stock. The homepage states over one million products in stock and 4,000 or more new ones a month. The pages do not say how the stock is split between Leeds and the supplier network.
• Authorised distribution. Farnell says it is an authorised distributor of over 2,000 suppliers. That is a statement of channel status, and the pages we read do not list the supplier names.
• BOM upload and quotes. The UK header offers a BOM upload and Request a Quote, alongside Buying Tools and Offers. File formats, row limits and quote turnaround are not described on the pages read.
• VAT display switch. The UK site shows prices in pounds sterling and lets the visitor switch between prices including and excluding VAT. That helps business buyers compare against budgets that exclude tax.
• Developer API. Terms of Use for API are linked from the terms of access, which points to a developer API. Endpoints, rate limits and fees are not shown on the pages we read.
• Leeds distribution centre. The homepage describes a 362,000 square foot distribution centre in Leeds. Dispatch cut-off times and delivery speeds are not stated.
• Round-the-clock service. The homepage says the service is available 24/7 from research and design through prototype to production. What the service includes outside the shop is not spelled out.

• A hardware team moving from prototype to production. The homepage frames the offer as covering research, design, prototype and production, and the BOM upload and quote request support a move from a few boards to a line order.
• A UK finance team comparing costs with and without tax. The VAT switch on the sterling prices lets a purchaser see both figures for the same basket, which suits budgets set net of VAT.
• A developer connecting a purchasing system. A separate Terms of Use for API suggests programmatic access exists. The team should read those terms and ask what the API returns before planning an integration.

The pages we read describe the site's tools rather than a sign-up procedure. The UK header offers login and registration and a My Account area, and the site shows sterling prices with a VAT switch, so a buyer can browse before creating an account. A BOM upload and Request a Quote are in the header for larger lists.

Buyers outside the UK, Middle East, Africa and Japan region are pointed by the homepage to Newark for the Americas or element14 for Asia Pacific, so a first step is to confirm which of the three brands serves your delivery country. The terms of access are worth reading first because they name the operating company and link the API terms.

Premier Farnell was acquired in 2016 by Avnet Bidco Limited, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Avnet, Inc., and was delisted from the London Stock Exchange; the UK footer calls Farnell a trading name of Premier Farnell UK Limited.

Over 1 million products from more than 2,000 suppliers are stocked, with a 362,000 square foot centre in Leeds. The pages read give no price list.

Farnell is entry #10 of 12 in the electronic component distributors list: it follows RS Components and comes before Newark. After the challenger places, Farnell is one of the established names, ranked in order and without a score.

Europe is home to 5 of the 12 vendors, Farnell among them (the United Kingdom).

Farnell covers Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Japan, while its sister brands Newark and element14 cover the Americas and Asia Pacific.

Premier Farnell UK Limited, registered number 00860093, operates the web site from Leeds.

Charging model: Sterling prices with a VAT-inclusive or exclusive switch; BOM upload and quote requests; no trial named.

The pages we read give no price list. The UK site shows prices in pounds sterling and offers a switch between prices including VAT and excluding VAT, so what a buyer sees depends on that setting. The header lists a BOM upload, Request a Quote, Buying Tools and Offers, which suggests quantity pricing is handled through quotes, although the pages do not say so in terms. Shipping rates, minimum orders and credit terms are not stated on the pages read. The pages describe no introductory offer and no subscription fee. The practical way to learn the cost is to build a basket or upload a bill of materials and compare the totals.

Checked against farnell.com for Best Electronic Component Distributors in 2026, review date 13 November 2026.

The UK terms of access name the web site operator as Premier Farnell UK Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under number 00860093, with its registered office at 150 Armley Road, Leeds LS12 2QQ. The footer describes Farnell as a trading name of that company and as an Avnet company.

The pages we read do not name a security certification, a data hosting location or a retention period, so those would need to be requested from the vendor. A separate privacy policy is referenced by the site but its contents were not part of our reading.

Integrations the vendor names (9):

• Newark
• element14
• Avnet
• BOM upload
• Request a Quote
• Buying Tools
• Developer API
• Leeds distribution centre
• VAT switch

Shared tags and a similar price model decide who is listed here; where none match, the neighbours in the ranking fill in.

• Future Electronics (#7 of 12): A good match for: Buyers in several regions who want local currency and a BOM list.
• RS Components (#9 of 12): Not for: buyers who want an independent supplier outside any group. Industrial supplier with 800,000 products, a credit account and scheduled orders.
• Digi-Key (#12 of 12): Distributor with credit accounts, a cross reference and PCB Builder design tools. Watch out: the ISO 27001 release does not say which systems the certificate covers.

Read from the vendor’s own pages on 12 November 2026.

• farnell.com: Product counts, 2,000 suppliers, regional brands, Avnet acquisition, Leeds centre, 24/7 service
• uk.farnell.com/about-us/parts-of-something-bigger: Product families, sterling prices and VAT switch
• uk.farnell.com/terms-of-access: Header tools, operator, registration number, registered office, API terms, Avnet footer
• uk.farnell.com/terms-of-access: Footer: Farnell as a trading name of Premier Farnell UK Limited

Feature lists tell little, so positions rest on setup effort, the true price, portability and fit. Here that gives Farnell the #10 position in a list of 12. How vendor facts are sourced, and how money can and cannot influence a page, is in the editorial process.