History and Structure

DMASS Ltd was formed in 1989 by nine of the leading manufacturers of semiconductors with markets in Europe. It is a company incorporated in England, limited by guarantee and with no share capital. Each participant is a member of the company. An Executive Committee of three members is elected to direct and oversee the business of DMASS with Data Dynamics Ltd. Each Committee member serves a term of three years, their final year as Chairman of the Committee. Solicitor Chris Rawlings is the director of DMASS Ltd and Cath Wallington of Data Dynamics Ltd is the Company Secretary. DMASS figures are collected and consolidated by Data Dynamics Ltd.

The membership was expanded in 1992 to include distributor participants and has continued to grow since then. It is estimated that DMASS currently represents between 70% and 80% of the total European distribution market, depending on the regions.

Purpose

The aim of DMASS is to provide its members with a reliable statistical tool to evaluate their relative mass-market performance. Resales (POS) data is collected on a quarterly basis by Data Dynamics. The consolidated results are released to members only and are never disclosed to non-members. Limited summary data is made available to the public through press releases.

It is not the intention of DMASS to prevent, restrict or distort competition or affect trade. There is no discussion of the results at meetings, except in very general terms. Data submitted by members to Data Dynamics is treated completely confidentially and only a consolidation of the submitted data is released. The consolidated results are presented in such a way that no member may become aware of any other members' data.

Reporting

Over the years the reporting has been both refined and significantly expanded and now covers 28 product categories over 19 European countries/areas, excluding sales to pc business. It therefore has significant credibility as an industrial reporting group. Reporting is made quarterly to strict deadlines.

Membership

New members join DMASS at the start of a calendar year. The deadline for accepting new members is 31 December.