Fired President of Ducommun Starts Electronics Distributor

W. Donald Bell, former president of financially ailing Ducommun Inc., has founded a new electronics distribution company, Bell Microproducts.

Formed three weeks ago, Bell Microproducts is based in Milpitas, which is near San Jose, with a branch office in Fountain Valley. The company has 12 employees but expects to have 10 locations and annual sales of $36 million by 1990, said Gary Bickers, Bell’s sales vice president.

Cypress-based Ducommun is an aerospace and electronics distribution company that has been struggling for some time. The company lost $2.5 million in the quarter ended Oct. 2, 1987. Ducommon blamed the loss largely on poor results in its aerospace business.

Ducommun’s directors fired Bell last year after an “unpleasant last-minute surprise” in the fourth quarter of 1986, when the company lost $18.6 million, company officials said.

Bell Microproducts’ target customers are U.S. electronics manufacturers and resellers who combine computer hardware and software products, Bell said Tuesday. He said the new company will concentrate on 15 product lines.

Bell is president and majority owner of Bell Microproducts. Bickers, the sales vice president, was senior vice president of Kierulff Electronics. Gary Cabrian, Bell’s operations manager, was computer products marketing manager of Kierulff.

Kierulff was the electronic components distribution arm of Ducommon but was sold recently to Arrow Electronics.