How Dell’s incredible business growth run in India has come to a screeching halt

Dell Technologies, a global computing solutions giant, has been on a steroid charged growth path in India with its revenue in the country climbing three times between FY17 and FY22 to $4 billion at a compounded growth rate of more than 20%. However, the home run has come to an end.

The company has seen its revenue decline for the second consecutive year in the year ended March 2024.

On the flip side, it managed to draw its highest ever profit from the business in the country.

Dell derives its business in India via multiple channels with sale of imported computers or trading being the top segment.

During FY24, sale of such computers rose 3% to ₹14,066.5 crore. This was neutralised by a sharp drop in activity in its manufacturing activity where it makes computers at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu and which was a $1 billion plus unit till FY23. The manufacturing unit saw revenues skid over 21% to ₹6,770 crore last year.

Software development unit, where it offers software development, testing, validation, documentation, program management and product support services to Dell group companies, was the sole outperformer, rising 18% to ₹3,248 crore. Dell’s internal IT support team that caters to services for IT projects, infrastructure management and support for global parent; as also the group call centre operations saw minor slipups over FY23 with revenue of ₹2,734 crore and ₹1,177 crore respectively.

Meanwhile, other services where it provided by marketing support services, analytics, financial shared services and other IT enabled services, grew to ₹2,384 crore in FY24.

Globally, Dell Technologies had an even poorer FY24 ended January 31 with revenue declining to $88.42 billion from $102.3 billion the previous year.

One of Dell’s key competitor in India, Lenovo has also faced similar challenges. Lenovo India saw total income decline 14% to ₹10,847 crore, sliding for the second year running.