Yahoo Finance Sir James Dyson to remain at controls as Dyson reports record results
Inventor Sir James Dyson has no plans to step back from his namesake business as it reported record sales and profit.
The 69-year-old, who founded the firm famed for its vacuum cleaners, said, although a succession plan exists for his son Jake to take over, he has no plans to move on in the near future.
“I have no retirement plan. I’m fully committed to the business,” said Sir James. “There may be a time they kick me out but I’m very happy designing and building new products and technology.”
His vow to remain at the helm of the business came as it posted annual sales up 45pc to £2.5bn and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £631m, a 41pc rise on the previous year.
The jump in profits came despite the business, which has delivered Sir James a fortune estimated at £5bn, investing heavily in research and development of new products.
Over the past couple of years Dyson has revamped its range, particularly in vacuum cleaners, and in 2016, 80pc of the 15m it sold worldwide were battery-powered cordless models.
“Considering we were not making them two years ago that’s a huge turnaround,” said Sir James.
Also helping drive growth was the launch of Dyson’s Supersonic hair dryer, which uses high speed motor technology developed for the company’s vacuum cleaners, and was a step into a new sector for the business.
Profits leapt despite Dyson spending about £7m a week on new products and technology and Sir James said the company plans to move into new sectors where its expertise can be leveraged – but only when the time is right.
“We’re looking at more non-domestic products but we are not rushing to do lots of different things,” he said. “We are a private company so we can do it when we are ready.”
The company also claims to be the UK’s biggest investor in robotics and artificial intelligence research, which it sees as massive growth areas.
However, Sir James downplayed recent reports that a third of UK jobs could be taken over by robots. “I hope that robotics means that we need a lot less human cleaners but to design and make robots you need an army of highly skilled engineers,” he said.
He is a passionate supporter of developing the UK’s engineering base which is struggling to turn out enough people with the skills the sector needs. Last year Sir James announced he was starting his own university at the company’s Wiltshire base to generate the engineers, spending £15m in the first year of the four-year course which will initially have 25 students, a number he expects to grow rapidly.
Earlier this year Dyson also bought the 500-acre ex-RAF base Hullavington to allow it to expand its UK operations, having outgrown its current site.
Sir James said the large site – just a few miles from the company’s Malmesbury headquarters – will mean Dyson can restart manufacturing in Britain if the economic conditions are right.
“It’s a romantic notion and we could do it but the supply chain needs to be built back up for it to happen,” Sir James said. “When I started out in the 1970s you could go to Birmingham and find all the toolmakers and suppliers you needed but that has all vanished now.
“It’s like the Government does not want manufacturing – it needs to commit heavily to manufacturing.”
