RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Tech giant Lenovo grew its revenus for the ninth straight quarter – but just barely – as the company battled COVID lockdowns and supply chain issues in China where most of its operations were based. It’s also been profitable across that two-year-plus streak.
Driving the growth: A 37% surge in non-PC business as Lenovo continues to evolve into a more services oriented venture.
Revenues grew under 1%, as noted by Reuters, but in constant currency adjustments revenues were up 5% year-over-year to $17 billion. The total met analysts’ expectations, Reuters added.
The first quarter totals have the company – which operates global headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville – at least on target to match the $70 billion-plus total it reached for the first time in its preceding fiscal year.
Non-PC revenue was crucial to helping Lenovo’s bottom line since its hardware sales have plunged, according to a recent report.
Lenovo PC sales plunge; US market share drops, new report finds
“We successfully grew our business and improved profitability for the ninth consecutive quarter, while our revenue mix from non-PC businesses reached 37%. These are the results of our strategic foresight and strong execution, together with our operational resilience,” said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo’s chairman and CEO, in a statement.
“Although external challenges may persist in the short-term, the digitalization trend continues to accelerate, and the hybrid work model is here to stay,” he added. “We have confidence in capturing these opportunities and will continue to invest, innovate, and deliver sustainable growth and profitability improvements.”
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing speaking at Lenovo Tech World 2021 in a screen shot from the event from Lenovo.
Net revenue for the quarter reached $516 million, up 11%, the company noted.
In a conference call, Yang spelled out in more detail why he believes Lenovo continues to grow:
“Two factors were crucial for our strong results last quarter: first, the strategic foresight and strong execution; second, our operational resilience through our unique global local operating model. Today, the digitalization trend continues to accelerate. The hybrid work model is here to stay creating strong and sustainable demand for smart devices IoT, smart infrastructure and the intelligent applications and services.
“Thanks to our strong execution of digital and the intelligent transformation strategy. With the years of investments in diversifying the growth engines, our net income grew almost 11% year-on-year and 35% non-Hong Kong FRS basis, still on track to meet our commitment of doubling profitability in the near term. Revenue grow to US$17 billion and was up 5% year-on-year in constant currency. With our strong performance in our new growth engines, solutions and services, infrastructure and the mobile businesses also double digital revenue growth year-on-year. We also met strong progress for the doubling R&D investment in the coming months by growing R&D spending by 10% and headcount by 29% year-on-year.”
Lenovo has said previously it would continue to expand its research and development spending and hiring – and in the most recent quarter the company noted it “remains committed to doubling investments in Research and Development (R&D) and grew R&D spending 10% year on year and increased R&D headcount by 29% year on year.”
How many additional jobs that might mean for Lenovo’s current operations has not been spelled out.
Currently, more than 300 open positions are posted at Lenovo’s career page.
Read the full financial report online.
Financial Highlights (Source: Lenovo)
