Premier Farnell to Announce Much Anticipated Winners of Live EDGE - Electronic Design for the Global Environment - During Virtual Communications Technology Conference on 2 April

LONDON - Conference Attendees Will Have Access to the Latest Information
on Communication Technologies From 29 Leading Component Manufacturers

Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl), the leading multi-channel, high service
distributor and its companies (Farnell, Newark, Premier Electronics,
Farnell-Newark CPC, and MCM), will announce the winners for Live EDGE -
Electronic Design for the Global Environment - during a special
Communications Technology Conference, where attendees can learn and chat
about the newest communication technologies at the virtual booths of 29
world-wide component manufacturers. The online event takes place on Thursday,
2 April 2009 in the specially developed Live EDGE EcoSphere, from 2:30 p.m.
GMT in London, 9:30 a.m. in New York and 9:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. Live EDGE
participants, members of the press, design engineers, students and electronic
hobbyists are invited to register for this event at www.live-edge.com.

(Photo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090324/342042 )

The Live EDGE winner(s) will be announced by Premier Farnell CEO Harriet
Green at 2:45 p.m. GMT, with a Q&A session to follow. The Live Edge challenge
required entrants to submit designs utilizing electronic components in an
innovative way, to make a positive impact on the environment. This year, the
top three countries to register for the event were India with 25%, the U.S.A.
with 17% and China with 8% of registrants.

The winning design will be awarded a unique prize package including a
$25,000 USD cash prize, and support services valued at an additional $25,000
USD from experts in the fields of design consultancy, marketing, legal and
commerce to drive the design towards production. In addition, each runner-up
will be presented $5,000 USD for their designs.

The virtual Communications Technology Conference will showcase the newest
communication technologies from 29 leading component manufacturers, including
National Semiconductor, Vishay Intertechnology and Ohmite Manufacturing, who
are global supplier sponsors of Live EDGE challenge. Featured technologies
and discussions will include Bluetooth, WiFi and other protocols. Attendees
will have the opportunity to chat live with manufacturer representatives and
network with fellow electronic engineers, engineering students and hobbyists.
Technical information will also be available for download.

“We are excited by the leadership opportunity the Live EDGE challenge has
afforded Premier Farnell, and feel the online environment of the Ecosphere,
which allows us to offer a learning and networking environment for design
engineers, is a fitting way to host the awards ceremony,” said Harriet Green,
Chief Executive Officer of Premier Farnell plc. “Last year’s competition was
a huge success and the winning design will soon be launched into production,
with an opportunity to significantly impact the environment. We are looking
forward to see what exciting, new innovations this year’s winners will bring
to the market.”

Conference updates, before and during the event, will be available via
Twitter by signing up at twitter.com/LiveEDGE_event. More information
about Live EDGE is available at www.Live-EDGE.com and Live EDGE Design
Challenge groups are also available on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Editors Note:

High resolution images of the Premier Farnell’s EcoSphere can be found
at: www.pinnaclemarcoms.com/PR_PICTURES/Premier_Farnell/EcoSphere.jpg

About Premier Farnell

Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl) is a leading high service, multi-channel
distributor of electronic, and industrial products and specialist services
throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It goes to market with a
differentiated value proposition, world-class marketing, a stocked range of
450,000+ products, and access to 4,000,000 more items from 3,500 top
manufacturers. The company has group sales of GBP823.1m and over 4,100
employees globally.

While global in scope, Premier Farnell recognizes the individual needs of
each market and has continued to internationalize its model accordingly,
trading locally under different brand names. Its primary electronics
businesses trade as Farnell in the UK, India, Europe, Australia and New
Zealand, Newark in the US, Canada and Mexico, and Premier Electronics in
China. In Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Brazil the operation is known as
Farnell Newark.

Premier Farnell has participated in the Business in the Community CR
Index for three years and has been one of the ‘biggest improvers’ in the
index in the last two years. The company is also a member of the FTSE4Good
Index of Corporate and Social Responsibility and has published its own
Corporate Social Responsibility report since 2002.

For more information visit the website at www.premierfarnell.com

Source: Premier Farnell Plc

Contact Details: Jenny Peters, Head of Corporate Communication, Premier Farnell plc, and Asia, Tel: +44(0)207-851-4102, Email: jpeters at premierfarnell.com; Janice Fleisher, PR & Communications Manager, Newark, The Americas, Tel: +1-1-773-907-5941, Email: jfleisher at newark.com; Jonathan Roberts, Account Director, Pinnacle Marketing Communications Ltd, Tel: +44(0)208-869-9339, Email: jonathan at pinnaclemarcom.com; Claire Haikings, Farnell, Europe Tel: +44(0)133-2790101 ext 3433, Email: chaikings at farnell.com