We are Flex

From the family room to the board room

In 1969, Joe and Barbara-Ann McKenzie started a family business called Flextronics making circuit boards for the growing number of companies in Silicon Valley. By automating board construction, they could produce more reliable boards, faster and more cost effectively than their customers could on their own.

A decade later, the company became a contract manufacturer that customers relied upon for outsourcing not just their circuit boards, but for other components and assemblies for their products as well.

The proposition remained the same—volume production with consistent quality at lower costs than customers could achieve themselves.

The company expanded its services to include the purchase of materials and parts for manufacturing, as well as using computer-aided design to create and optimize the circuit board for each product.

Expanding across the value chain—and the world

By 1981, Flextronics became one of the first US service manufacturers to go offshore by setting up a manufacturing facility in Singapore. It brought with it a common set of employment standards, gaining recognition with employees drawn to the integrity of these practices.

The company realized extraordinary growth when it introduced vertical integration to optimize the supply chain, and aggressive global expansion by creating industrial parks where suppliers could re-locate to be close to where products were manufactured.

A shift in manufacturing

There was also a growing trend for manufacturers to acquire the manufacturing facilities of OEMs in the computer and telecoms sectors which led to further acquisitions.

Corporate ownership shifted from public to private as markets went through the slumps of the late 80s and early 90s.

Rigorous quality standards and fast time to market

In 1994, Flextronics returned to the public markets when it was listed on the Nasdaq. By the end of the 90s, our 2.6 million square feet of manufacturing space in extended across 26 operations centers around the world. We had $2.2 billion in revenue and a customer list that was a who’s who’ of the Information and Communications Technology industry.

We distinguished ourselves from competitors by the quality of our working environment and HR standards for employees, as well as our ability to get products to market quickly through its our multi-disciplinary new product introduction centers.

From contract manufacturing to a full product lifecycle partner

In 2007, Flextronics bought long-time competitor Solectron for $3.6 billion. The bold move put us at the top of the US market and gave it us the scale to help our customers with any aspect of product development.

Establishing our master brand

In 2015, we established Flex as our master brand and continued evolving our product lifecycle services and solutions to provide value for our customers.

Pushing the limits of what’s possible

In 2019, we celebrated five decades of manufacturing leadership.

In the same year, Revathi Advaithi was named as Chief Executive Officer to lead the company into a next era. Building on over 20 years of sustainability investments, in 2022, we doubled down on our climate action efforts and announced a commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040.

The world has changed since our pioneering days of 1969, and so have we. We’ve earned the trust of customers as the manufacturing partner of choice through our expertise and partnership across the product lifecycle: from design and fulfillment to circularity. We remain committed to helping our diverse customer base design and build products that make the world a better place.