Dyson, the vacuum and electronics specialist, has announced a 45 per cent rise in takings for 2016 thanks to the launch of new products including a £299 hairdryer.
The company said annual turnover was £2.51bn, with profit before tax and other expenses coming in at £631m – up 41 per cent on the previous year.
This was helped by success in Asian markets, including 266% in Indonesia and 244% growth in China.
‘Enormously optimistic about Brexit’
Sir James Dyson, the billionaire entrepreneur and founder of the Dyson company, was a key supporter of Brexit. He has spoken repeatedly about the “chronic” shortage of engineers in the UK, and said leaving the EU would “liberate the country’s economy.”
Sir James has said World Trade Organisation tariffs- which the UK would have to pay if we failed to secure a trade deal with Brussels- would be a “tiny penalty to pay”. Dyson already pays these tariffs due to its Asia-centric manufacture.
In an interview with the BBC, Sir James Dyson said “Europe’s only 15 per cent of the global market and the really fast-expanding markets are in the Far East.
“I’m enormously optimistic because looking outwards to the rest of the world is very, very important.”
Brexit-busting hairdryer
Dyson, which is headquartered in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, launched 12 new products last year.
The biggest was the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer, which has received rave reviews from critics despite its £299 price tag. The hairdryer works in a similar way to the company’s bladeless fan range, by sucking air through the handle and pushing it out through a round hole at the top.
Other new launches included the Dyson V8 cord-free vacuum, costing around £520, and a purifier fan that has been popular in Australia and the US.
The company is also gaining traction in Asia. Dyson, which launched in China three years ago, saw growth of 244 per cent in the country last year, helped by the opening of an office in Shanghai.
In the UK, sales rose by about 33 per cent, partly due to the opening of the company’s first high street store in July, on London’s Oxford Street. The company plans to have 25 such stores across the world by the end of the year, including one in Shanghai and one on Fifth Avenue in New York.
Chief executive Max Conze said 2016 was one of Dyson’s best years yet. “Our future is best understood by looking at the new Dyson Demo stores. They get people hands-on with Dyson machines to understand the intelligent technology inside.”
Investing in tech
Last month the company announced plans for a second technology campus in Malmesbury.
The 517 acre space, on former Ministry of Defence land at Hullavington, Wiltshire, is part of plans to increase the company’s workforce of engineers and scientists from 3,500 to around 7,000 over the next five years. Despite having its R&D base in the UK, the company manufactures all its products in Malaysia.
Sir James thinks UK should use the Australian points-based system to allow the brightest students to stay in the country after studying. He added in his BBC interview that he wants foreign students removed from official immigration figures and additional protections for maths, engineering and science students.
Dyson launched its first vacuum cleaner in the UK in 1993 with the famous slogan “Say Goodbye to the Bag.” The entire company is still owned by Sir James Dyson and his family.
