Photo: Ilan Costica CC BY-SA 3.0
When Dell unveiled plans in February 2005 to create 400 jobs in Glasgow, with the help of a £7.5m grant from the Scottish government, the announcement was initially greeted with scepticism.
During the electronics downturn of 2000-2, several overseas multinationals that had also received such incentives — including Chunghwa, Hyundai and Motorola — closed down their manufacturing plants in “Silicon Glen” and transferred the jobs to lower-wage economies.
The suspicion was that computer maker Dell would be no less footloose. There was also a supposition that, despite its reassurances to the contrary, the company was setting up little more than a call centre.
Over the last two years Dell has gone some way towards dispelling such notions.
The $57.5bn turnover company opened its Glasgow-based facility — which is in fact intended to provide technical support to medium and large businesses and public sector customers across the UK — in June 2005. Since then the site, intended to complement existing ones at Bracknell and at Bray/Cherrywood in Ireland, has already exceeded job creation targets.
Having originally aimed to create 400 jobs in Glasgow’s East End, Dell already employs 850 across Scotland. Last November the company further bolstered its Scottish operations with the takeover of Edinburgh-based solutions provider ACS — a deal symptomatic of its desire to move into higher margin IT consultancy services. It has also declared an intention to boost its Scottish workforce to 1,500, which would make it one of the largest US employers in the country.
Charles Quinn, director and general manager of Dell Scotland, says: “We have been growing and expanding in Scotland — so we’re clearly reversing the trend of US companies. We’ve laid down some very solid foundations during our first two years and are well positioned for long-term sustainable growth.”
As Dell weighed up several possible UK locations three years ago, the enterprise bodies Scottish Development International and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow helped persuade it of Glasgow’s attractions, highlighting the proportion of the workforce with IT degrees and the quality and value of available premises. The fact that they could also throw in the £7.48m regional selective assistance grant (since supplemented with a further £3.8m) clearly also helped focus minds at Dell’s headquarters in Round Rock, Texas.
In the end, the US company opted to rent 9,104 sq m of the former WD & HO Wills cigarette factory — a vast Art Deco building originally built in the 1950s but which has since been refurbished and renamed City Park.
David McKenna, account manager for business growth at Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, says: “This is a major coup for Glasgow, and an endorsement for what the city is doing, both in terms of education and skills and providing competitively-priced properties.”
Mr Quinn, a Scot who formerly worked alongside Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, at the US software giant’s Seattle headquarters and previously at IBM, believes the “strong affinity” between the Americans and the Scots also played a part. “I think [the Americans] like the [Scots’] work ethic, they like the sense of humour and I think they like the straight talking.”
Mr Quinn stresses that the new operation is more than just a call centre. He points out that, since it opened two years ago, 40 per cent of the workforce have been promoted and adds: “There’s a great buzz and a real can-do attitude about the place.”
In addition to winning business from sizeable Scottish businesses, including Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Standard Life, Dell earlier this year won the £15.5m contract for Glasgow primary schools. It has also been seeking to embed itself with the local community in other ways. It is organising IT workshops in local schools and has joined Scottish Business in the Community’s “closing the gap” programme.
As for the future for Dell in Scotland, Mr Quinn says: “Our aim is to be seen as the local employer of choice. We just want to be seen as a great company to come and work for, a place where you can develop your career, a place where you can have fun.”
“We already do desktop and laptop support, but we’re currently adding server support. Slowly but surely the business is expanding. Clearly we’re aiming for good solid steady growth. But we’re not going to take on too much too soon.”
This article was first published in the FT Report Doing Business in Scotland, published with the Financial Times on 20 September 2007