Dyson manufacture different appliances but are perhaps best known for their vacuum cleaners.
Dyson was founded in 1991, and in 2018 employed over 12,000 people worldwide. One big shift that occurred in the company’s history, was when in 2002, it decided to relocate its factory base away from Malmesbury in Wiltshire to Malaysia. At the time, it was criticised by local union leaders for the effects it would have on the local economy and 65 jobs were lost but it did allow it to reduce its production costs by 30%. However, a recent announcement of a UK expansion to create a high tech campus focusing on battery manufacturing and the housing too of the Dyson Institute of Technology, a college founded to help increase engineering skills, shows how the company is beginning to specialise its industrial wings between different countries to meet different skill sets.
Because of its large success, it has attracted the interest of foreign companies to send students who have been accused of conducting espionage. In 2012 a notable incidence of this occurred where Dyson claimed that trade secrets were being send to Bosch’s Chinese motor manufacturer. James Dyson himself has spoken out on political issues such as with his support for Brexit and Dyson’s 2017 suit against the European Union. The College set up by James Dyson has contributed to British engineering and the ‘James Dyson Award too’ demonstrates an incidence of where the company has gone beyond its balance sheet to focus on the wider field of engineering in terms of students studying the subject and the quality and content of its teaching in the UK.
Life in any of the countries where Dyson has a manufacturing presence probably isn’t very deep. 12,000 employees worldwide is hardly going to seriously change global neighbourhoods, however its impact on consumer households, particularly in the UK has been significant. In 2017, an estimated 14.5 million people used Dyson vacuum cleaners ranking of the most used vacuum cleaner brands in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017. That translates to 22% of the UK in 2017.