N.F. Smith & Associates

N.F. Smith & Associates, also known as Smith, or Smith & Associates, is an independent distributor of electronic components and semiconductors headquartered in Houston, Texas.

History

In 1984, brothers Robert and Leland Ackerley and their wives founded Smith. Working around a dining table with two phone lines, they connected with top industry figures in the nascent computing industry. Smith  is now one of the largest independent distributors in the semiconductor and electronic components industry, and currently ranks 11th among all global distributors.

The 1990s saw marked growth for the company. In 1992, Smith's annual sales were $30 million; by 1998, they had topped $470 million due to the company's expansion of its business into new regions, industries, and service offerings. In 1997, the company moved into its new 60,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Houston, followed by the opening of its first major international office and hub in Hong Kong that same year. Smith established a European presence with the opening of its Amsterdam office in 1999.

In 2000, the company completed construction of a 15,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Houston to expand its ability to handle OEM and CEM consignment and excess inventories, adding to its supply chain services. Smith opened offices in Seoul, San Jose, and Guadalajara in 2000, followed by office openings in New York City in 2003, Shanghai in 2004, and Shenzhen in 2008.

In 2010, the company completed construction of an enhanced, in-house, anti-counterfeit laboratory at its headquarters. Smith relocated the laboratory to a 57,199 sq. ft. operational facility in November 2014.

The company opened its 10th physical trading office in Taipei in 2011, adding additional offices; Austin in 2013, Penang in 2014, Bangalore in 2015, and Cluj-Napoca, Munich, and Beijing in 2017.

In the current decade, Smith continues its growth adding sales offices near strategic customers in Berlin in 2021, Singapore in 2022, and London, Tokyo, Detroit, and São Paulo in 2023.

Products and Sourcing

Smith sources and distributes active, passive, and electromechanical IC components, as well as computer products and peripherals such as HDDs, processors, memory modules, video cards, CPUs - both obsolete and in-production parts. It serves customers in a broad range of industries, including consumer electronics, enterprise electronics, server hardware, automotive, telecommunications, medical, oil and gas, energy, and aeronautics and defense.

Services

Over time, the company expanded on the shortage sourcing that characterized its earliest business model. Services offered include inventory management programs such as VMI or EOL models, third-party purchasing, excess inventory management, IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) and secure data erasure, HDD & SSD services, rework, component recovery, reverse logistics, and kitting.

Sustainability

Since 2011, Smith has been “committed to work toward becoming a climate neutral, zero waste-to-landfill distributor.”

Smith began placing a heavy corporate emphasis on sustainability in 2008, when an ISO 14001 audit revealed deficiencies in the company's environmental program. Smith used these results as a catalyst to undertake improvements, including switching out lighting, using only 100% recycled packaging for shipments, and focusing on reducing energy consumption.

On April 8, 2012, Smith was named Overall Winner: Greatest Implementation of Green Building Innovations in the City of Houston's 2011 Green Office Challenge, the nation's largest Green Office Challenge for 2011. Smith's headquarters have been certified to ISO 14001 since 2005 and to R2 since 2015.

Revenue and Growth

As a privately held company, Smith provides annual revenue figures to supply chain and semiconductor industry media.

In 2005, Smith sales exceed $500 million for the first time. Annual revenue passed $810 million in 2016, followed by four years of over $1.35 billion from 2017-2020. With the shortage of components and supply challenges driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith doubled its revenue in 2021 to $3.4 billion and welcomed 333 new hires worldwide – an increase of 264% over 2020. The company’s revenue peaked in 2022 with a total of $4.7 billion. In the last two calendar years, Smith’s revenue has averaged $2.3 billion.