Malmesbury-based appliance firm Dyson is to invest a further £1.5bn in research and development to help it launch 100 new products and create more jobs, it announced today.
The firm’s founder, inventor Sir James Dyson, said he will donate £50m to an external research programme with British universities and £200m to expand on an anticipated surge in manufacturing in South East Asia.
Dyson has started work on a previously-announced £250m doubling of its Malmesbury site which will help create a further 3,000 jobs across the business.
The new staff will join the 2,000 engineers the company currently employs, half of them in the UK. In total Dyson currently employs 6,000 staff worldwide, with 2,500 based in the UK. The company invests a third of its profits into research and development.
Dyson claims the design centre will be one of the most environmentally-friendly commercial buildings in Britain, using structural glass to help manage its temperature, solar cells on its roof to provide power and a ground source pump to for heating.
Sir James said: “Our growth is fuelled by technology and we are thinking long term – 90% of our technology is sold abroad, we’re quickly growing across Asia, and it’s phenomenal to think that we are now number one in the home of technology – Japan.
“It is like selling coal to Newcastle. But we must relentlessly invent – that’s why we are investing in our research footprint here in the UK and investing in our manufacturing capabilities in South East Asia.”
In 2013, the company became the market leader – by value – in Japanese floor cleaners. It is also market leader in Taiwan and Hong Kong and growth in China is strong.
Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the new investment plans, saying: “Dyson is a great British success story and the expansion of the Malmesbury campus will create thousands of new jobs, providing a real boost to the local economy and financial security for more hardworking families. Investment on this scale shows confidence in our long-term economic plan to back business, create more jobs and secure a brighter future for Britain.”
