"Electrocomponents Creamed by Raspberry Pi" -- Motley Fool

Pretty much agree with that, it's less sales of higher margin stuff. Surely a shed load of sales of small margin items still creates profit.

I also wonder if it is RS mucking up the order quantities, seems to be so many people waiting for Pi units from RS, whilst Farnel and CPC seem to have them in stock. A colleague was waiting around 3 months for his Pi from RS, cancelled that and got two from farnel in 48 hours.

Steve

> I also wonder if it is RS mucking up the order quantities

There's an amazing story yet to be fully explained about how RS has

gone for I think at least a month from 27 Aug to 27 Sept without shipping

any RPi's, while Farnell has had minimal delays.  These orders

apparently include people who registered their interest in March, and

finalized their orders in June, including having their credit cards charged,

which was well before quantity orders were accepted starting on 16 July.

But I don't think that has anything to do with the latest RS financial statement.

They are showing an estimated pre-tax profit for 6 months, April to September,

of 40 Million pounds, compared to 59 a year ago.   Even if they had no

disruptions to their RPi shipping, there's no way they could have come close

to making up the 19 Million pound difference in profit.

The only way I can see that the RPi might have had a significant effect on

their profit is if management was focused on the RPi and its logistical issues,

and marketing was focused on advertising the RPi, to the exclusion of focusing

on higher-margin products.  Of course, that wouldn't be an explanation you would

want to give to investors. 

Liz claims to be in constant contact with RS management, and certainly they

have serious RPi logistical and other issues to deal with, but it doesn't appear

that they are actually giving RPi issues top priority.

also, I might add, this article is just one recent sign of a fraying relationship

between RS and RPF.  JamesH has been publicly critical of RS, saying

"RS are simply a distributor who have got it wrong"

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=15956

and

"Now, the Foundation can give advice etc, and do, constantly, but if RS or anyone else do not take that advice, there is nothing the Foundation can do without breaching their contract. And that would be a very foolish and costly thing to do.The Foundation is as frustrated as any one would be with the situation (and not just the stuff that visible to the general public, but that's a story for the book of the film of the play)."

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8786&start=703

On September 6, 2012 at 10:57 am JamesH told an RS customer:

"I’d suggest reordering from Farnell, that should be much quicker."

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1929#comments

And now RS is publicly blaming the RPi for its lower profit margins,

to the amusement of the financial press.

It reminds me of the partnership between RPF and Seneca that

neither party appears happy with.

also, I might add, this article is just one recent sign of a fraying relationship

between RS and RPF.  JamesH has been publicly critical of RS, saying

"RS are simply a distributor who have got it wrong"

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=15956

and

"Now, the Foundation can give advice etc, and do, constantly, but if RS or anyone else do not take that advice, there is nothing the Foundation can do without breaching their contract. And that would be a very foolish and costly thing to do.The Foundation is as frustrated as any one would be with the situation (and not just the stuff that visible to the general public, but that's a story for the book of the film of the play)."

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8786&start=703

On September 6, 2012 at 10:57 am JamesH told an RS customer:

"I’d suggest reordering from Farnell, that should be much quicker."

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1929#comments

And now RS is publicly blaming the RPi for its lower profit margins,

to the amusement of the financial press.

It reminds me of the partnership between RPF and Seneca that

neither party appears happy with.