Dell Says Sharpening Customer Focus, Operating Efficiency are Extending Advantage in Midst of Industry Softness, Uncertainty
Company Will Reaffirm First-Quarter Earnings Guidance at Thursday Analyst Meeting
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 3, 2002-- More and more customers, including purchasers of server and storage systems, are choosing Dell (Nasdaq:DELL - news) for computing products and services.
Customers are increasingly responding to direct, one-to-one relationships and the value from leading efficiency and quality.
Those will be primary messages to investors, analysts and reporters Thursday at Dell's spring analyst meeting here. Meeting remarks start at 8:30 a.m. (ET) and will be accessible through a ``live'' audio Webcast, with supporting material, at www.dell.com/investor/.
Dell will reiterate its earnings guidance of 16 cents per share for the fiscal first quarter, which ends May 3. Dell said in mid-February that Q1 unit volumes and revenue could be down 3 to 5 percent sequentially. The company now believes revenue might be down only about 2 percent, reaching about $7.9 billion.
Kevin Rollins, Dell's president and chief operating officer, said the company is using broad, fundamental operating advantages to profitably win and deliver value to customers in the midst of industry softness and change.
``Component costs fell at an unprecedented rate last year, and we gained significant new business from passing those declines to customers more rapidly than anyone,'' said Mr. Rollins. ``Supply costs have flattened somewhat, but our competitive advantage has not.
``We've stepped up our pursuit of internal cost reductions through still-higher levels of quality and efficiency. The total opportunity to lower costs -- in areas such as product design, warranty expenses, manufacturing and call-center management -- is even greater this year than last.'' |
