Dell gives thumbs down to branding

No plans to supply resellers with PCs to sell under their own brands

The boss of direct-selling vendor Dell has said the company has no plans to become an OEM vendor and supply resellers with PCs to sell under their own brands.

A year ago, Dell said it would sell unbranded white boxes to SMEs through local resellers in the US using the slogan 'Doing Business Direct'.

It based the strategy on the fact that many small businesses in the US treat resellers as outsourced IT providers and want systems built to order. At the time, Dell said it had not ruled out a similar move in the UK.

But when asked by CRN whether his company would supply resellers with unbadged PCs which they can then sell under their own brands, Dell chief executive Michael Dell said: "I can answer that straight away. There are no plans to do that."

Dell said the business that has driven his company's growth, "keeping costs low by selling direct and only providing established lines to customers", will remain.

Chris Jones, senior analyst at Canalys, said: "The US market is consolidated. The UK market is very different. It is fragmented with mail order companies and clone brands, so the SME customer has more choice for unbranded PCs.

"Dell's UK market share is still growing. If growth dried up it might have to look at a different white box strategy, but there is no need today to move away from its core competency: selling direct."

A representative for Dell said: "If Michael Dell said 'no' to any move to allow resellers to sell PCs under their brands, it is an emphatic 'no'."