Kent Horst, president of A.E. Petsche, said the company's sales have improved as it has increased its value-added service offerings to customers in the military and aerospace markets. The company has also seen a strong increase in sales of connector assembly, wire laser marking and kitting of all electronic components.

Riding the wave of greater sales in the connector market, which the company said doubled over 2006 levels, the distributor in 2007 announced it had begun construction on a new, 25,000-square-foot connector assembly located at its Arlington, Texas, headquarters. The facility will increase storage and production capacity for more than 10,000 connectors per day.

A.E. Petsche has also targeted its resources toward building a 12,000-square-foot distribution center in Las Americas Industrial Park (Chihuahua, Mexico), a move that locates inventory closer to the company's Mexican customers.

A.E. Petsche provides connectors, cable harnesses, wire identification systems and cable management products. It also designs, assembles and distributes custom cable and wire systems and offers such other services as bar coding, custom packaging and wire stripping. The company operates 27 sales offices and distribution centers in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and North America.