Dell signs Croma to sell PCs in India

Dell will begin flogging its PCs in India through Infinity Retail’s Croma chain of stores from next month.

The computer giant said today that it had inked a deal with Croma, but remained silent on financial terms of the agreement.

Dell’s entry into the Indian channel is the firm’s latest move to ramp up its global brand presence in retail stores. In the past the company shunned the channel in favour of only selling direct to customers.

Last year Michael Dell and co were forced to have a change of heart about Dell's biz strategy following a poor run of quarters which saw the computer maker slip into second place behind robust rival HP on worldwide shipments.

The firm was forced to abandon its direct-only policy and opened its arms to resellers and retailers across the globe in an attempt to prop up flagging market share.

In recent months Dell has tied up deals with Best Buy and Wal-Mart in the US, Carrefour in France, Tesco in the UK and Gome in China.

The firm's sales and marketing veep Michael Tatelman said: "The agreement with Croma will strengthen Dell's consumer presence in India, making our products more accessible to more customers."

Just last week Dell said it would significantly raise its stakes in the booming economies of China and India in the hope of offsetting lacklustre growth in the US.

The PC vendor said it was developing new product models made specifically with Asian buyers in mind, and that it would increase its presence in the region.

Infinity Retail has 17 stores in six Indian cities that operate under the Croma brand name. ®