Steve Rawlins chief executive officer at Anglia has been working to get a major analogue chip line for five years and so the signing came at exactly the right time.

"This is a big signing for us, it will strengthen 32-bit micros and the rest of our silicon ranges," says Rawlins.

Rawlins sees the Intersil signing as a major coup for the Wisbech-based distributor. Traditionally the analogue supplier has relied on big players like EBV and Arrow.

But Anglia is not alone in taking on new franchises in a downturn. Ismosys has signed an agreement with Lineage Power to represent the US-based company's power conversion products in the UK and Ireland.

Digi-Key has also added a couple of power lines with industrial battery supplier EnerSys and Cymbet the supplier of solid-state, rechargeable thin-film batteries and energy harvesting power storage modules.

RS Components has secured what it called "first-to-market rights" for the introduction of specific motor controller and power supply products from Phoenix Contact.

Advanced Power Components has taken on AVX's high reliability capacitors including tantalums and ceramic capacitors.

EBV Elektronik is to distribute a range of LEDs from US-based supplier Luminus Devices in Europe.

Significantly all these deals are being signed off at the time when the European component market is bouncing along the bottom of a very deep hole.

But the message seems to be not to change your distribution business model in a downturn.

Even if that model requires you to add lines to go after potential sales opportunities in those markets which are likely to emerge from the downturn most quickly.

Namely these are identified as power control systems, renewable energy and LED lighting.

"You don't change direction in a downturn," says Rawlins.