David Dicker on FY24 results and outgrowing Australia

It’s been a challenging few years for Dicker Data, but the distributor now sees better times ahead - and has embarked on overseas expansion.

To recap, Dicker Data’s 2024 financial results were impacted by high inflation and interest rates, with a 2.9 per cent gross revenue increase to $3.37 billion. Net profit before tax declined 2.8 per cent to $113.2 million.

We spoke to David Dicker, the distributor’s founder and chief executive, about the results and the year ahead, during which Australia will hold a general election.

First, the latest results point to big business carrying the day for Dicker Data in 2024. 

While the small to medium sized segments of the market have been lacking in confidence, and reduced their spending as consequence, this was offset by Dicker Data’s enterprise accounts.

“The enterprise guys are always going to be less affected by economic conditions,” Dicker said.

Dicker expected the large-scale enterprise to continue to perform well, saying “2025 will be better than 2024 for sure”.

What about the upcoming election then? In several countries overseas, incoming administrations have taken the axe to government expenditure. Is that a concern?

“Look, economic conditions in Australia are not as good as they have been, but they’re still not bad though.”

“I’ve never been someone who’s going to rely on the government to pull me out of the fire,” Dicker said.

Dicker, who lives in the South Island of New Zealand, has been through several Australian elections in his time, and believes things will take a turn for the better after May.

“Whoever wins the election, I expect we'll get a bump after the election; it won't matter who wins, that's just the way things go,” he said.

Given the adverse macroeconomic conditions that were very much outside the distributor’s control, would it be fair to say the financials don’t look too bad overall? 

“Relative to most other companies, we’re actually doing well, but I’m not fabulously happy with the numbers, I’ll be honest,” Dicker said.

“As I said in the chief executive commentary, it’s not the greatest outcome but the problem that we have is that we’re such a large percentage of the market now, that we’re basically trapped by what the market can do,” he added.

“Back in the old days, if we go back say 10-20 years ago, and we were a much smaller player, we could always play games, or we could take from the other guys.”

That’s not how it is in 2025 for Dicker Data, which is now in a very dominant market position.

“When you get up to the size where we are now, you become much more reliant on where the overall economy is going.”

“The Australian economy is, well, it’s OK, but is it really moving ahead? That’d be my question,” Dicker asked.

Overseas expansion Dicker Data’s next move

Having grown to the size it is, and together with Ingram Micro and Synnex having captured 70 per cent of the local market, Dicker Data is now looking at expanding overseas.

Singapore and the Philippines are the two locations in South East Asia that the distributor is aiming to build a presence in. 

“It’s a huge market, and our basic attitude is that we’d like to get a part of it,” Dicker said.

“We’ve been very successful in Australia, and we’ve been pretty successful in New Zealand; we just want to use the same kind of methods to get an outcome there [SE Asia],” he added.

What stage are the plans to open shop in Singapore and the Philippines then? 

“They’re fairly advanced. One of the problems you’ve got is, you work with vendors, and those things take time; everything takes time, it takes longer than you want them to take, but the opportunities are definitely there,” Dicker said.

“Business is not only about competition, or about absolute aims or end results; it’s about beating the other guy, and that’s what you have to do,” Dicker said.

Might we see something like a big Dicker Data opening in SE Asia this year?

“We got a few things going on there. I can’t really talk about them but I’m feeling moderately confident,” Dicker said.

“They key to make those things work is to have local guys on the ground.”

“Dicker Data has been successful because we’re a local distributor, and we understood the Australian situation better than all our competitors that were basically foreign multinationals, who had all the strings pulled from Palo Alto, or somewhere in America.”

“That just hamstrings their ability to react to a local situation,” Dicker emphasised.

Taking the Dicker Data recipe for success to SE Asia might get the distributor to its founder’s goal of $4 billion in annual revenue, as that’s where Dicker sees the needed growth opportunities.

While Dicker Data is in a strong position in the Australian market, the local economy is just not that good he explained.

“We’re basically constrained by the economy now, which is not so fabulous, but it is reality,” he concluded.