*NEWS*DELL TAKES HIGH ROAD TO SCOTLAND

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Dell takes high road to Scotland
DELL, the US computer giant, is to “significantly ramp up” its operations in Glasgow and create jobs in Scotland rather than in Ireland, where it has its European manufacturing base.Since it opened last year the company’s Glasgow centre has handled UK-only sales and technical support calls from medium and large business clients, as well as the public sector.This is now to include European, Middle East and African (EMEA) business.It means that a planned steady build-up of staff of around 400 now to 850 by 2008 will easily be surpassed at the Glasgow base at the city’s former Imperial Tobacco factory, which has been supported by up to £7.5m of Regional Selective Assistance.Gartner analyst Malcolm Hancock said he expects Dell to fully tap into a “surplus” of highly skilled staff in Scotland who have become casualties of a once flourishing Silicon Glen.Dell is Ireland’s biggest IT employer, but Hancock claimed: “A readily available skilled workforce nearby is a big mover.” Ireland has to import around 80,000 people a year to fill jobs. “So one can see where Dell is heading for future business needs.”A low rate of corporation tax in Ireland has proved a prime mover in the past for the likes of Dell and Microsoft to locate major operations there.However, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation’s third national survey claims that the cost of doing business in Ireland is now “spiralling out of control and threatening the viability of both indigenous and multinational companies.”According to the IBEC, quoted in Business Limerick, the Irish economy lost 7,700 jobs nationally in the first four months of 2006.Dell director (software and peripherals) Michael Buck said: “A significant ramp-up is to occur in Glasgow which we are growing fast, especially when it comes to technical support expertise.”I can confirm that whilst the focus during the past year has been UK-only, from now on EMEA is to be included in our strategy. I cannot say yet by how much exactly, but further new jobs are to come in Glasgow on top of what we have previously announced.”Texas-based Dell is currently under pressure worldwide following a sharp drop in its first quarter profits this year, and it has seen its share price drop by 40% in the past year.Buck said that they were involved in a constant drive to cut costs and gain premium prices for their vast range of pcs, notebooks and servers plus a highly lucrative printer market, which Dell entered three years ago.Dell is keeping the launch of its new laser printers range – due out this week – firmly under wraps, so as not to give dominant player Hewlett-Packard any competitive advantage.Hancock said the firm was spending $180bn globally in this sector, of which one third is European based. The UK accounts for a fifth of the European figure of $60bn. 

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June 27, 2006 at 11:12 AM