Plenty of business relationships begin at trade shows. Few begin with someone following a distributor around its booth until they get a conversation. That’s how the partnership between WAGO and DigiKey started, and six years on it’s still growing.
Background into Bukowski and WAGO
John Bukowski, Senior Director of Channel at WAGO Corporation, looks after the company’s distribution relationships in the US. His remit covers the company’s full-line distributors, its electrical wholesale partners focused on the construction side, and its online channel, including Amazon, and the retail space too. He sets up relationships with distributors, finds new ones, and helps them market and sell WAGO products.
WAGO has been in business since 1951. It’s a family-owned company headquartered in Minden, Germany, with its North American base in Germantown, Wisconsin. Bukowski describes it as “a global manufacturer of electrical interconnect and automation products.”
A chase around the booth
The partnership started when Bukowski came to electronica for the first time around 2019-2020. He had a clear goal in mind.
“I looked up a gentleman by the name of Levy Olsen and I chased him around the [DigiKey] booth until I had a chance to talk with him and I asked him why he doesn’t have WAGO on their line card and he said, ‘I don’t know. Maybe we should take a look at it.’”
That opened the door. Bukowski got in touch with the team at DigiKey’s headquarters in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and the companies started working together. He gives a lot of credit to the people on the DigiKey side: “It’s a great team that I work with there,” he says.
From $100,000 to almost $15 million
The growth since then has been remarkable.
“We started off very small. I think our first year we started our sales in October. We did just over $100,000 and in 6 years we’re approaching $15 million in sales through DigiKey.”
Bukowski says a big reason is DigiKey’s decision to hold a large amount of WAGO stock over the long term. “Our customers want the product when they need it and because of the stocking position that DigiKey has taken, they can get almost all the products immediately from DigiKey’s inventory.”
Getting in front of the right people
The DigiKey website also helps a lot, because it puts WAGO in front of a wide audience. “You get a large variety of people that visit [DigiKey’s] website and get exposed to the products that they offer,” Bukowski explains.
That reach is backed by close work with DigiKey’s marketing team. “We have a good relationship with the marketing team putting WAGO’s name out in front of the customers that come to [the] DigiKey site.”
Why WAGO is growing so fast
WAGO is now one of DigiKey’s fastest-growing product lines.
WAGO is less well known in North America, according to Bukowski . He says DigiKey’s reach changes that: “because of the reach that DigiKey has we get a lot of exposure and they’re able to be introduced to new products that WAGO has to offer plus be introduced to some of our older technology or products that have been around for a while that are very well accepted in other parts of the world and not so much in North America.”
In other words, DigiKey introduces North American engineers both to WAGO’s newest products and to proven technology that customers elsewhere in the world already know and trust.
Looking ahead
Bukowski is confident the relationship will keep growing over the next few years.
“We continue to excel. Our customer count increases tremendously. Our number of products that they’re stocking continues to increase, and our sales continue to grow. So I work with a great team at DigiKey and they keep pushing WAGO forward.”
So is he glad he chased DigiKey around that first electronica booth? “Yes, I am very much so.”
Watch the full interview
To hear more from John Bukowski , watch the full video interview: DigiKey at electronica 2026 with WAGO
