PBUS @C-Level: Mark Burr-Lonnon Brings Europe’s TME to the U.S. Distribution Market

August 20, 2026

Mark Burr-Lonnon spent many years – and logged many miles — establishing Mansfield, TX-based distributor Mouser Electronics in Europe and Asia. Now, as CEO Americas and Global Executive Consultant for Poland-based TME Electronic Components, he’s introducing TME to the U.S.  electronics market.

TME is a family-owned distributor serving e-catalog-type (high-mix, low-volume) orders to engineers and buyers globally. Its competitors include DigiKey, Mouser and Farnell in the electronics space and RS, DigiKey, Mouser and Grainger in the automation and control space. TME can accommodate larger orders as needed, Burr-Lonnon said.

That ability is timely as memory and other components are in high demand as AI and data centers proliferate in the U.S. market. Although volume orders are customarily served by large broadline distributors such as Arrow Electronics Inc., Avnet Inc. and WPG Holdings, catalogs are frequently called upon as a resource when key components are in short supply.

Still, breaking into the U.S. market is a challenge. The electronics distribution industry underwent a massive consolidation in the 1990s during which Avnet and Arrow, primarily, acquired dozens of smaller distributors in Europe and the Far East. U.S-based companies likewise gobbled each other up, eschewing the local distribution model in favor of national and international businesses which achieved economies of scale for distributors, expanded component franchises to new markets and provided international customers with the option of buying components and services from trusted partners on a global basis.

Burr-Lonnon points out that TME has some unique offerings to its current and future customers in the U.S.  “TME has the most robotic warehouse in the electronics industry,” he said. “It has more than 1,300 suppliers including lines not carried by other distributors in the U.S. including Shindengen, Semikron  Danfoss, Opto Supply, Tocos, ETI, Pilz, Stego, Goobay, BQ Cables, ILME, PCE, Pizzato and Hummel. It also carries well-known franchises such as Microchip, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, DiotecTE, Amphenol, Harting, Weidmuller, Hammond, Meanwell, Schneider, Omron, Littelfuse, Vishay, Lumex and Cincon.”

“In looking at overlap with Mouser and DigiKey , TME holds 747 additional franchises, primarily from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Poland and the rest of Europe,” he added. Along with servicing data centers, TME carries all the elements needed for panels, mostly industrial control. “We see demand for panels rising as data centers continue to be built,” Burr-Lonnon said.

The global data center market was valued at $269.79 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow from $300.64 billion in 2026 to $699.13 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights. Data centers, in part, provide computer power for AI applications.

Executives from competitors DigiKey and TTI echo the opportunities data centers represent for electronics distributors. “I was naive in the sense of how far the tentacles go,” Dave Doherty, CEO of DigiKey, told Panel Builder U.S. “You read articles on how much power these data centers are sucking up. Well, what does that drive? It drives a requirement for more efficiency and power consumption and everything else that we consume as, as individuals, whether it’s industrial or consumer.”

“[AI] is physically manifesting already in autonomous vehicles, but it’s going to physically manifest in all kinds of places where you are going to have AI embedded and AI on the edge,” said Michael Knight, Corporate Senior Vice President of Strategy for TTI Inc.  “You’ll have neural networks. Figure 03, the latest humanoid robot out of Figure, is one hundred percent neural net.”

TME’s U.S. warehouse will also mean tariff-free sales for many customers. The facility, based in Marietta, GA, will be functional by the end of the year, Burr-Lonnon said. European tariffs will apply as assigned to the U.S. by the EU when products are stocked in the U.S., he explained. “TME absorbs the tariffs and shipping and all duties into its price,” he added.

TME sells into the general industrial, automation, robotics, EMS and system integrators markets. “TME is the world’s biggest distributor that America never heard of,” Burr-Lonnon concluded. “We will be over $500 million in sales in 2026. The Americas business is up 55 percent so far this year. With no memory and only 9 percent of our business in semiconductors that’s a strong showing.”