The whole world's in Farnell's hands...

The Leeds-based FTSE 250 company, which supplies thousands of products ranging from LEDs to microchips and batteries, started selling directly into China, India and Eastern Europe just three years ago.

Between November and January, its fourth quarter, sales to these developing economies had grown to 21.6 per cent of the group's total sales.

Chief executive Harriet Green said this performance exceeded the group's 20 per cent target, and now she plans to lift revenues from developing economies to more than 30 per cent of total sales over the next three years.

"They are stretching targets for the business," she said. "We aim to take it up another 10 per cent whilst growing other core markets."

Increasing its exposure to the stellar growth potential of these economies through a swathe of local language websites should spread the group's exposure and limit the impact of regional downturns.

Its fourth quarter sales in India and Greater China leapt 70.3 per cent and 76.4 per cent respectively on a year ago.

Its newly launched strategy, The Next 1,000 Days, sets benchmarks for growth.

Premier plans to grow the percentage of its internet sales to 70 per cent within three years, from the current 41.5 per cent.

They were just 17 per cent when Ms Green launched a growth strategy three years ago.

Ms Green said Premier has been transformed from a "slightly sleepy catalogue business" to a "very high-performance organisation".

"I'm not able to just say the recession is over," said Ms Green.

"What I can say is that we have been investing in our strategy during the downturn and the proposition that we have created is attracting market customers...

"We have taken market share from our competitors."

Shares leapt almost 10 per cent to close up 19.7p at 220p, as the group reported a return to sales and profit growth in its fourth quarter.

That was despite a 24 per cent decline in pre-tax profit in the year to January 31 to 54.8m.

"While weak comparisons aid these figures, it is clear that trading has turned and the group is performing well," said Investec analyst Guy Hewlett.

"This was a good result with a return to year-on-year growth in revenue and profits," added Seymour Pierce analyst Christopher Welsh.

Among its most recent investments was the launch of an interactive online store to target the US market – element14 – "a Facebook for electronic design engineers".

The site has become "increasingly integral" to its business, Premier said. It helped the group achieve a Google page rank of fifth in December.

The site is now attracting 24,500 visits each week, with engineers able to buy the components they need, while accessing design tools, conducting research and collaborating with peers.