DEMM Engineering & Manufacturing
Soanar celebrates 54 years by bending to the winds of change
As Soanar celebrates 54 years of supplying reputable electronic products for its customer project’s needs, it highlights that it’s longevity and success has stemmed from its ability to evolve and keep pace with change.
The world has transformed significantly since 1963 when George Soanes and A+R Transformers teamed up to establish Soanar (SOAN-AR). For those of us that can recall, the latter years of the last century were the heady days of electronics in this region. Servicing the thousands of manufacturers (both large and small) were hundreds of electronic component and parts distributors. Today there are noticeably fewer of both.
To remain globally competitive and be geographically closer to large markets, most suppliers and manufacturers merged, moved offshore or disappeared altogether. Rob Ranieri, Soanar’s general manager, makes the analogy with a parable about the “Inflexible and Flexible Tree”. “As the winds of change become a gale force it’s often the inflexible tree with its solid trunk that gets uprooted whilst the tree with the more flexible trunk just sways with the wind and survives the storm. We have spent the last year listening to new and existing customers and now service them better. We’ve gone back to basics with a simple proposition – good value, good service and good stock.
To achieve success, Soanar have developed closer ties with vendors such as Mean Well and ELO making them confident of achieving the aggressive sales targets they’ve set themselves. Soanar are committed to servicing its New Zealand customers maintain its large Auckland distribution centre “which customers can still collect their orders from if they wish,” said Ranieri.
A new website was launched last year to make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for and order online. For those interested in speaking directly with a person, the local call centre is available during business hours.
The new look and more flexible Soanar have taken the complexity out of doing business, focusing on their customers who are simply interested in ‘service and stock’.